This review concentrates on observations of neutral hydrogen in the Magellanic System, and what they reveal about the structure, dynamics, evolution and ultimate fate of the LMC and SMC. Some recent observations of 161 Cepheid variables in the SMC are used together with the HI observations to determine the geometry of the SMC. These show that it has an amazing depth of at least 30 kpc. To explain the results it is proposed that the SMC had a close encounter with the LMC which has warped the disk of the LMC, produced the bridge between the two galaxies and tidally fissioned the SMC. The SMC is in the process of irreversible disintegration. It is believed that the Magellanic Clouds are not bound to our Galaxy and approached us from the direction of Andromeda. They may have had a close encounter with Andromeda 3 x 109 years ago, which may explain the massive starburst which occurred in the LMC and SMC at that time. It is believed that the Magellanic Stream has been swept out of the inter-Cloud region by the ram pressure of the gaseous halo of our Galaxy. If dynamic friction is sufficient for the Clouds to be captured and to eventually collide with our Galaxy, a polar ring will be formed similar to that observed in some other galaxies. The polar ring of dwarf spheroidals and outlying globular clusters at present encircling our Galaxy may be the remnants of a previous collision with some other galaxy 6 x 109 years ago.

The Windsor amateur astronomer, John Tebbutt, had a ceased observing in 1907. However, in 1909, at the age of 75, he came out of retirement to observe Halley’s comet and his astrometric positions were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. These data were used, together with most published observations from the 1835 and 1910 apparitions, for the computation of Halley’s orbit for ESA’s Halley intercept spacecraft, Giotto. A detailed analysis of the observations have shown minor imperfections that, when corrected, gave rms errors of 3''.5 arc in right ascension and 2''.8 in declination. His systematic errors are negligible at the 0''.2 level.

It is widely believed that stars form from collapsing interstellar clouds. However, molecular clouds typically contain of the order of 103 solar masses. Thus a mechanism is required that allows a collapsing cloud to fragment into a number of collapsing stellar sized sub-condensations. The early work was based on a virial theorem approach—defining a critical mass a cloud must exceed in order for its gravitational force to overcome the resistive thermal, rotational and magnetic forces, thus allowing the cloud to collapse. This critical mass is analogous to the Jeans mass for non-rotating, non-magnetic clouds. It is thought that a cloud containing several critical masses may collapse into several sub-condensations. Further, it is thought that the galactic magnetic field will cause the critical mass to decrease as the cloud collapses, allowing the cloud to fragment into a number of sub-condensations. The critical mass decreases as the cloud flattens down the field lines (since Mcrit ∝ B3/ϱ2 and B ∝ ϱk, K < ⅔ for non-isotropic collapse).

A new method for solving heat diffusion in three dimensional particle simulations is described. The difficulties encounted by other authors is discussed, in particular the difficulty of including boundary conditions in particle simulations. One and three dimensional tests of the method are described.

Observations of 21 cm HI emission-line profiles have been made in 34 directions from l= 172° through 0° to l=97° at high galactic latitudes and in 59 directions towards the LMC (b~ –33°) with the aim of detecting low-intensity halo features which may be compared with other element features of similar radial velocities detected by ultraviolet or optical absorption lines. Data are presented as spectra and tables of the parameters: radial velocities, line temperatures, halfwidths and column densities. Spectra of both low-intensity (halo) and high-intensity components are given for 48 positions in three tracks across the LMC.

Features near radial velocities –48 and +58 km s -1 are found in all the directions examined, whereas significant numbers of features grouped around average radial velocities + 112, +160 and +373 km s-1 (Isr) are found only in the directions of the LMC.

Using the HI column densities as references, we have estimated depletions in the abundances of calcium and sodium in the halo, spiral arms and the LMC disk. In one direction towards the LMC depletions in the halo features of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, magnesium, aluminium, silicon and iron (from International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite data) have also been estimated.

Techniques in QED (quantum electrodynamics) have been developed previously (see for example Melrose and Parle 1983) allowing one to treat electron-photon and photon-photon interactions exactly in the magnetized vacuum and allowing one to include the effects of a medium. These techniques are extended to include particle-particle interactions. Exact cross-sections for electron-electron collisions are derived and compared with known expressions. Such calculations have application in studies of the formation and transfer of radiation in the atmospheres surrounding neutron stars.

Very few (if any at all) three dimensional models of the final evolutionary stages of a star’s life have appeared in the literature. Such models may be important if the stellar core maintains sufficient rotational energy during it’s lifetime so that when collapse finally occurs, the increase of rotational energy to gravitational energy, may lead to a non-axisymmetric instability.

A sequence of core collapse models with decreasing rotation rate is considered. These models were calculated using a three dimensional, post-Newtonian, hydrodynamical, numerical code. The results show that for high precollapse rotational energies the core can become unstable resulting in the formation of what resemble ‘spiral arms’. Unfortunately, because of limits on computer time, the calculations had to be discontinued shortly after this development occurred.

A new family of solutions for stationary convection (Murphy and Lopez 1984) has been established which exists within the astrophysical range of parameter values — large Rayleigh number and low Prandtl number. These single mode Type II solutions, which have a non-zero component of vertical vorticity, apparently do not exist at higher Prandtl numbers and are characterized by a lower vertical velocity and heat flux, when compared to the equivalent single mode Type I solutions for Rayleigh — Benard convection with zero vertical vorticity. In turn the vertical component of vorticity associated with Type II solutions is responsible for modifying the horizontal components of the velocity field to establish cyclonic or swirling type solutions within the hexagonal convection cell.