A white dwarf is a body of stellar mass, but of planetary dimensions. It is self luminous with a surface temperature that has been observed as high as 70,000 K or as low as 4,000 K. Because of its low surface area the star is far fainter than a main sequence star of the same colour; equally the light it emits is bluer than that from a main sequence star of similar luminosity. Figure 1 is the HR diagram from data obtained by the US Naval Observatory showing the dwarf and white dwarf sequences.

Aperture synthesis is a two-step imaging process in which the final map or image is reconstructed from intermediate measurements. As an alternative to digital computers, optical computers can be used to perform the reconstruction step. Optical reconstruction can be a fast and cheap way to handle the large amount of data now being generated by earth rotation aperture synthesis arrays.

Since their initial discovery by Hale, the nature of solar magnetic fields has presented us with a number of problems. At one time it was thought that the field consisted of a weak background dipole field of order 1-2 G on which was superimposed the considerably more intense fields associated with active regions and sunspots. However, more recent observational studies by Harvey, Frasier, Stenflo and others have suggested that 90% of the background field appears in the form of intense small-scale fields with intensities of order 103 gauss or greater and which have remarkably similar properties whether they occur in active or quiet regions. In particular, the field intensity appears independent of the total amount of flux present but the appearance of the structure depends critically on the total flux.

From early experiments in 1966 (Cole 1968) the acousto-optical radio spectrograph has been developed at CSIRO to a sensitive, multi-channel spectral-line back-end. The principles of the instrument are described in detail elsewhere (Lambert 1962; Hecht 1977; Milne and Cole 1977). By means of a Bragg interaction between a laser beam and an ultrasonic beam derived from the radio signal, light is diffracted into an order whose light intensity distribution is accurately related to the power spectrum of the radio signal. In the earlier spectrographs the spectrum was recorded photographically (Cole 1973a, b; Hecht 1973) but this was limited to strong spectral features. To study weak spectral features a stable, linear system was needed with large dynamic range. The combination of an array of photodiodes and computer would be capable of observing these weak spectral features (Cole and Abies 1974). Development since 1974 has been a progressive identification of sources of thermal and mechanical instability and of excess noise in the spectrograph system.

Microwave line investigations have shown that several bright southern galaxies contain dense molecular clouds overlying bright radio nuclei (see e.g. Whiteoak 1978). In terms of general kinematic models of galaxies the clouds have velocities that are anomalous, being consistent with radial motions both towards and away from the nucleus. To extend our knowledge of these motions we are investigating the distribution of optical spectral lines near the nuclei of the galaxies. We present here preliminary results for NGC 4945 and 5128.

The past and present existence of smaller bodies in our solar system manifests itself in various ways through the appearance of asteroids, minor moons, planetary rings, surface cratering, etc. The occurrence of these planetesimals appears to be an integral intermediary step in the formation of the larger bodies from the initial grain state. In order to account for the discreteness and order of the planetary orbits and regular satellite systems, Prentice (1977, 1978) has suggested that the accumulation of this planetesimal material took place in a series of well defined orbits corresponding to the positions of a system of gaseous Laplacian rings that were shed by the primitive contracting parent cloud. Alfvén and Arrhenius (1975) have also drawn attention to the fact that planetesimal formation occurs far more effectively if the accumulation takes place along well defined ‘jet streams’. Hourigan (1977) has previously demonstrated how such concentrated rock/ice streams or ‘jet-streams’ naturally form on the mean Keplerian orbit of gaseous rings that are present in the Prentice-Laplace model.

The University of Tasmania has been operating muon telescopes since mid-1971 in an underground power station operated by the Hydro-Electric Commission at Poatina in Northern Tasmania. The equipment is located beneath ~ 150 m of rock, corresponding to a total absorption depth of ˜ 365 hg cm-2. The initial pilot experiment was reported (Fenton and Fenton 1972) at the May 1972 meeting of A.S.A., and results from the first two full years of operation were presented to the Hobart meeting of A.S.A. two years later (Fenton and Fenton 1974). We now have complete data for the 5-year period 1972-1976, together with provisional data for 1977.

Four years ago a Table was shown in which the sensitivity of the Fleurs Synthesis Telescope (F.S.T.) was compared with that of three other radiotelescopes of similar resolving power (Christiansen 1972). At that time the high sensitivities quoted for the F.S.T., like those for all but one of the comparison telescopes were only theoretical since only the eastwest array of the F.S.T. was in operation and low noise r.f. amplifiers had not been installed. Now the telescope is in operation with characteristics close to those given in the Table quoted. Sources are mapped separately with the eastwest and north-south arrays and the two maps are combined. The combination produces maps with a resolution that is approximately the same in declination and right ascension. This is unique amongst existing rotational synthesis telescopes. Some of these maps will be shown in papers now in preparation.

According to Oort (1965), the mass density in the solar neighbourhood (inferred from the gravity component normal to the galactic plane) is between 50% and 150% greater than the mass density inferred from non-dwarf stars. One possible explanation for the “missing mass” is an overabundance of faint M-dwarfs (Weistrop 1972), but present indications are that this overabundance is either small (Weistrop 1976; Sanduleak 1976) or non-existent (Faber et al. 1976; Eggen 1976). Nevertheless, Salpeter’s initial mass function (Salpeter 1955) suggests that the total mass may be dominated by low mass stars, including masses M≤0.08M⊙ which never undergo significant hydrogen burning.

Crannell et al. (1978) have reported an observed correlation between the time profiles and flux densities of impulsive hard X-ray and microwave solar bursts. We report here on a significant correlation between the flux density of extended bursts of hard X-rays and micowaves. These extended events follow after impulsive bursts and last much longer (see e.g. Fig. 1, Frost and Dennis 1971). However, as extended bursts only occur during very large flares the number of cases available for study is small. The significance of our observations follows from the suggestion of Wild et al. (1963) that the extended bursts are evidence for a second-phase acceleration process in the corona. We show that the observed characteristics of these extended microwave bursts (viz. a rather flat spectrum below a turnover frequency which is independent of intensity) can be explained by gyro-synchrotron radiation from the same population of energetic (E ≈ 100 keV) electrons as those emitting (thin-target) X-ray bremsstrahlung. A detailed source model is discussed in a companion paper (Nelson and Stewart 1979 — Paper B).

Fabry-Perot instruments have been extensively used for many years for the study of spatially extended emission nebulae because they offer a potential luminosity resolution product (L × Rpot) which exceeds by a high factor tha attainable by aerating spectrometer. Meaburn (1970) shows that this product is given by the relation where P is the number of resolution elements each containing a maximum solid angle, Ω observed simultaneously, ti is the refractive index of the medium between the plates, A is the acceptance area of the device, εo is the transmission coefficient of the associated optics and εF the transmission coefficient of the Fabry-Perot (which if coated with dielectric multilayers can be very high).

The necessity of having accurate oscillator strengths in astrophysical applications is well known. The apparent discrepancy which existed between the solar and meteoritic abundance of iron is just one example of the problems which can arise from poor f-values. An excellent critique of methods for determining both absolute and relative f-values has been given by Blackwell & Collins (1972). Their comments on life-time techniques provide a clear indication of both the advantages and difficulties associated with these techniques: “In principle, a life-time method, as exemplified by the technique of beam foil spectroscopy, described for example by Wiese (1970), has the fundamental advantage that in some restricted circumstances its application does not depend upon a temperature measurement or any assumption of themodynamic equilibrium in the source: in addition it gives an absolute result without the need of an absolute number density of atoms. The hope is sometimes expressed that the method of beam foil spectroscopy will yield oscillator strengths of the required accuracy. In practice, the technique suffers from the difficulty that although the life-time of an excited state can be measured with reasonable accuracy, it is also necessary to measure in a separate experiment the branching ratios for radiative de-excitation. As these ratios are usually measured by an arc method, the accuracy of the final oscillator strengths is limited by the deficiencies of this source. Also, some atoms in the beam may be excited to higher levels than the one being examined, and because of the nature of the initial excitation is unknown, radiative de-excitation (cascading) takes place to this lower level in a way that is wholly unpredictable. This difficulty is especially important for levels of low excitation.” In this talk techniques will be described for overcoming the cascading problem in beam foil spectroscopy and for measuring the associated branching ratios.

One of the factors determining system sensitivity in radio astronomy measurements of microwave emission and absorption spectra is the flatness of the spectrometer response in the absence of any spectral features. Ripple appears as a quasi-sinusoidal variation of this baseline and occurs whenever two or more components of the same signal reach the receiver by different paths and interfere.

A 3 GHz maser from the Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden, is currently at Parkes on a long-term loan basis. So far, it has been used on the 64-m radio telescope for a two-week period of spectral-line observations in February 1979, providing a system sensitivity far superior to that previously available at the same frequency. The observed lines were the ground-state transitions of CH at 3264, 3335 and 3349 MHz, the 211 – 212 transition of H2CS at 3139 MHz, and the 211-212 transition of CH3CHO at 3195 MHz.

In a previous paper of this issue (Stewart and Nelson 1979 — Paper A) we showed that for extended bursts a good correlation exists between the observed 100 keV X-ray slux density and the 3.75 or 9.4 GHz microwave flux density. We also showed that the microwave spectrum of these bursts was much flatter (S ∝ f1.0 on the average) than the optically thick (self-absorbed) spectrum observed for impulsive microwave bursts (Crannell et al. 1978; Dulk et al. 1978). Furthermore, the microwave turnover frequency was > 10 GHz in eight of the nine events studied and <20 GHz in four of these cases. The remaining event, which was severely occulted by the solar limb, had a turnover frequency of ∽ 1 GHz.

A 4-m telescope for mm-wave observations, particularly of spectral lines, was erected in mid-1976 at Epping by Krupp Ltd., Rheinhausen. A cooled mixer receiver was installed on the telescope in April 1977 and a series of test observations made during the remainder of the year, subject to the availability of the receiver and the multi-channel filter bank which were shared with the Parkes 64-m telescope.

A new surface installed recently over the central 16.7-m-diameter zone of the 64-m radio telescope at Parkes has extended the operating range of this instrument to millimetre wavelengths.

Some self-absorbed synchrotron sources have, a small but observable degree of circular polarization rc near the absorption turnover (Roberts et al. 1975). The simplest interpretation of the circular component is in terms of the intrinsic degree of circular polarization of synchrotron radiation (Legg and Westfold 1968); this provides a relation (Roberts et al. 1975)

The Chatterton Astronomy Department of Sydney University, in collaboration with the Astronomy Group of Imperial College (London), has carried out a program of speckle interferometry on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Over 2 km of film were exposed during the two observing sessions in November and December, 1978, and the analysis of this very large amount of data is being carried out at the present time.

Cosmic rays produce a component of photomultiplier noise which often dominates the high amplitude region of the noise pulse height spectrum and which is not reduced by cooling the tube. The source of the noise is Cerenkov radiation produced by individual high energy cosmic rays in their passage through the glass envelope of the tube, principally in the glass faceplate on which the photocathode is deposited.