The Mount Stromio optical pulsar detection equipment is built around a commercial two-track tape recorder: one track records timing pulses, and the other the pulses from a photomultiplier (Peterson 1974). Because of the modest frequency range of the recorder, it has been necessary to introduce a scaler between the recorder and photomultiplier in order to cope with bright sources.

Over the past century the techniques and progress of optical astronomy have depended largely on the performance and limitations of the photographic plate. The sort of observations we can make, the faintest limits to which they have been carried and the design of telescopes and instruments have all been circumscribed by the available plates. Over the next decade we will see our emulsions gradually replaced for most applications by one or more of a variety of photo-electric imaging systems now under development.

The variable X-ray source in the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), SMC X-1 (2U 0115-73) was discovered by Leong et al. (1971). X-ray eclipses with a period of 3.8927 ± 0.0010 days were subsequently reported by Schreier et al. (1972). Identification of the X-ray source with SK 160, star number 160 in the list of Sanduleak (1968), was proposed by Webster et al. (1972) on the basis of the similarity of its spectrum with that of the optical counterpart of Cyg X-1.

Cen X-3 and Her X-1 are the only two X-ray binaries which are known to pulsate periodically (at 4.8s and 1.2s respectively) in the X-ray region. The latter was identified with a fourteenth magnitude light and spectrum variable HZ Her, which was subsequently found to exhibit 1.24 second optical pulsations during certain phases. The possibility that Cen X-3 may prove to be as interesting an object optically has resulted in a wide spread search for its optical counterpart.

The third Uhuru catalogue of X-ray sources (Giacconi et al. 1974) contains X-ray source positions given to a much higher precision than was previously available and this fact has given considerable impetus to the search for optical and radio counterparts. Many such identifications have now been made and confirmed, e.g. by discoveries of correlated variability.

While Uhuru’s contribution to X-ray astronomy in the energy range 1 – 20 keV (and more particularly 2 – 10 keV) has been most impressive, it remains true that satellite observations outside this energy range, and particularly at energies above 20 keV which are also accessible to balloon-borne instrumentation, have been somewhat disappointing. We cannot forsee any likely marked improvement in this situation for at least four years and we believe therefore, that balloon-borne payloads can continue to contribute significantly to the study of hard X-ray sources.

Evidence has recently been put forward that Jupiter might be modulating the intensity of cosmic radiation observed at the earth (Pizzella and Venditti 1973; Cini-Castagnoli et al. 1973). It therefore seemed worthwhile to analyse underground meson data in Jovian time for any evidence of an effect at the higher energies over a complete orbital period.

It has recently been reported (Cini-Castagnoli et al. 1973; Jacklyn and Cini-Castagnoli, 1974) that Jupiter may be responsible for a modulation component in the counting rate of underground cosmic ray detectors on the earth. The evidence suggests that a screening mechanism is operating, in as much as the observed counting rates are diminished when Jupiter is within the field of view of these detectors. The magnitude of the effect is larger than can be accounted for by simple line-of-sight obscuration by the planet itself, and it has been suggested that the intense and extensive Jovian magnetic field is producing the effect.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new expression for < ṗ > the average time-rate-of-change of momentum of cosmic-ray particles propagating in the interplanetary region. The expression derived replaces the previously used adiabatic deceleration formula and it is arrived at by a rearrangement and reinterpretation of the well known equation of transport for cosmic-rays. Thus, although we provide a new expression for < ṗ > we maintain the equation of transport and do not render invalid results for differential intensity and differential current density of cosmic-ray particles obtained by its solution (Jokipii 1971; Gleeson 1972).

In this paper we study the steady-state interplanetary propagation of solar cosmic-rays by means of analytic solutions of the equation of transport. The cosmic-rays are released monoenergetically from a fixed heliocentric radius and redistribute in energy as they propagate. Previous investigations by Goldstein et al. (1970), Urch and Gleeson (1971,1972), and Parker (1965, 1966), were either not general enough or used numerical solutions which could not deal with strictly monoenergetic initial injection nor maintain accuracy over a wide range of particle energies. We use the analytic solutions of Gleeson and Webb (1973) and show the energy changes, the redistribution in energy (or momentum) and the characteristics of the particle flow or streaming.

In recent years, cosmic-rays have become part of the study of astrophysics and the search for information as to their origin has assumed considerable importance. The question of the origin of the rays is linked with questions concerning their acceleration and propagation through interstellar space. The main problem facing the cosmic-ray astrophysicist in attempting to elucidate these questions observationally arises from the fact that most particles are electrically charged, causing their paths to be curved by the magnetic fields of the Earth and interplanetary and interstellar space.

The barometric coefficient of a cosmic-ray neutron monitor is found to increase with atmospheric depth from ~ 150 mm Hg to 600 mm Hg and then to decrease slowly with depth down to 760 mm Hg (Bachelet et al. 1965; Carmichael and Bercovitch 1969). Bachelet et al. 1965) tentatively attributed this change in the slope of the barometric coefficient versus atmospheric depth curve at 600 mm Hg to the contribution made by muons to the neutron monitor counting rate. Carmichael and Bercovitch (1969) have shown that the contribution to the monitor counting rate made by obliquely incident nucleons may be the real cause. Singh et al. (1970) have derived an expression for the barometric coefficient for vertically incident particles in a neutron monitor which increases continuously with increasing atmospheric depth down to 760 mm Hg, demonstrating more definitely that the above explanation of Carmichael and Bercovitch is correct.

The Fokker-Planck equation has been used by a number of authors (Jokipii 1966, 1971; Hall and Sturrock 1967; Hasselmann and Wibberentz 1968; Roelof 1968) to deduce the diffusion coefficients of cosmic-ray particles in the interplanetary magnetic field. However, these calculations suggest that the diffusion of particles perpendicular to the mean magnetic field is implausibly large; so large that the validity of a Fokker-Planck approach as applied to the interplanetary medium must be doubted.