The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), a 0.85-meter, cryogenically-cooled telescope, will be launched in 2002. SIRTF will extensively make use of large-format detector arrays. These, combined with the sky visibility of SIRTF's solar orbit will facilitate significant surveys. SIRTF surveys will complement observations by NASA's other Great Observatories and will enable follow-up SIRTF studies. Data from the large, “SIRTF Legacy Science Program” will be made widely available, on a rapid, non-proprietary release, to the general astronomical community.

I describe a project to survey ∼ 13 square degrees of the sky at 15μm and 90μm with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The European Large Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) is a collaboration involving 19 European institutes (in addition to the authors and others at their institutes the following people and others their institutes are involved I. Gonzalez-Serrano, E. Kontizas, K. Mandolesi, J. Masegosa, K. Mattila, H. Norgaard-Nielsen, I. Perez-Fournon, M. Ward) and is the largest open time project being undertaken by ISO. We expect to detect at least 1000 extra-galactic objects and a similar number of Galactic sources.

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) carries a varied suite of sensors for imaging in the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, hyperspectral imaging in the ultraviolet through visible and infrared spectroscopy with a Michelson interferometer. At comparable sensitivity to the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) but with a 40 times smaller point response function, the MSX infrared radiometer is ideal for surveying specific large areas such as those in which IRAS was degraded by confusion or not covered at all. This experiment obtains simultaneous observations over a very wide spectral range, from 0.11 to 25 μm, thus providing unique information on the energetics of such diverse objects as comets and H II regions. Initial observations indicate that the astronomy objectives on this experiment will be achieved.

The Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) (Schember et al. 1996 and references within) is a small spaceborne telescope specifically designed to study the evolution of starburst galaxies. This powerful astronomical instrument will be capable of detecting typical starburst galaxies at z ∼ 0.5, ultraluminous infrared galaxies beyond a z ∼ 2, and luminous protogalaxies beyond z ∼ 5. The WIRE survey, to be conducted during a four month period in 1998, will cover over 100 deg2 of high Galactic latitude sky at 25 μm and 12 μm.

Since 1975, the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Moscow University (SAI) has been conducting a search of Middle Asia for good astronomical sites. After investigating the meteorological conditions, temperature fluctuations and seeing quality of different sites, Maidanak Mountain (an isolated summit 150 km south of Samarkand) was chosen. This site has 2000 hours per year of clear observing conditions with a median seeing of about 0.7″ (Artamonov et al. 1987, Bugaenko et al. 1992). The construction of a 1.5m RC telescope for the Maidanak Observatory was mostly completed when it was nationalized by Uzbekistan in 1993. Tashkent Astronomical Institute is now working with SAI to form the International Maidanak Observatory and to continue with joint observations.

The BATC (Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut) CCD color survey started 2 years ago. It is based on observations with the 60/90cm f/3 Schmidt Telescope of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory using a 2k×2k CCD and 15 intermediate band filters covering from 300nm to 1000nm to obtain the spectral energy distribution (SED) of all objects in 500 selected fields down to mV = 20 (Chen 1994). The basic framework of the survey including instrumentation, data acquisition system, archive data system, and the various steps of data reduction has been established. About 60 fields have been observed. Most fields are still short of observations in UV band. We are waiting for a new thinned CCD to improve the quantum efficiency.

The Struve space astrometric project (Yershov et al. 1995) is being developed by a consortium of Russian space instrumentation institutes in order to extend the Hipparcos satellite reference system (the project initially named AIST, owes its current name to the first director of the Pulkovo Observatory).

Ever since the turn of the century sky patrol observations—i.e., the routine surveillance of the visible night sky—has been one of the main foundations of variable star research, and thus of astronomy in general. Historically several of the major Observatories all around the world were contributing. Up to this day all these observations are in the form of large-field photographic plates, constituting a total of some 2 million plates which, collectively, contain the history of the light changes of celestial objects (mostly in the northern hemisphere and down to some 13 magnitudes apparent brightness or fainter) during the past 100 years. In modern times the last place left in the world where sky patrols are still being carried out routinely is Sonneberg Observatory.

The CTIO 4-m and 0.6/0.9-m Schmidt telescopes provide a wide-field CCD imaging capability unequalled in the southern hemisphere. Characteristics of present and future CCD imaging systems for these telescopes are discussed.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) project is a Chinese National Big Scientific Project. It has been recently been approved by The National Committee of Science and National Committee of Planning. LAMOST will get funds from our government and will start at the end of 1996. We expect to finish this project within 7 years. Here we describe the LAMOST project briefly.

The “Two-degree Field” (2dF) project at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) gives the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) a field of view two degrees in diameter at the prime focus, equipped with 400 optical fibres for multi-object spectroscopy. The basic components of 2dF are the corrector lens optics, the robot which positions the fibres and a pair of spectrographs. All these are mounted on a new ‘top end ring’ so that the whole assembly can be easily put on and off the telescope. Here we will give an update on the status of 2dF, highlighting features which have changed or been developed since earlier reports.

The broad spectral coverage of radio sources including high frequency data are desirable for a number of reasons. Over the last decade, researchers have identified a new class of very high-redshift objects that are more closely related to normal galaxies than to quasars. Surveys with radio telescopes have been instrumental in finding these extremely distant galaxies, which are barely visible at optical wavelengths. The selection of candidates with steep radio spectra has proven a particularly effective means for finding galaxies with redshifts greater than z = 2. Secondly, they uncover flat spectrum sources which are likely to be compact and useful as radio astrometric standards and as well as candidates for further interferometric observations. Third, they provide information about physics and, in particular, about the high-energy particles responsible for radio emission. And last but not least, simultaneous observations at several wavelengths will exclude variability of sources in interpretation of their spectra. Here we present the preliminary results of an ongoing investigation of a complete sample of radio sources from the PMN Survey.

AROPS is an objective-prism survey conducted at high galactic latitudes with the 67/92 cm (f=205 cm) Schmidt telescope of the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory (Italy). The basic technical data are:

1. – TP4415 high resolution plates, 20×20 cm, treated in forming gas (H2+N2) and covering 24 deg2 on sky

2. – 4° UBK7 objective prism, for a dispersion of 1490 Åmm−1 at NaI D

3. – blue side cut-off at 4980 Å using a 2mm GG14 filter, for a recorded λ range 5000–7000 Å

4. – untrailed spectra to record V ∼ 16.5 mag stars with 40 min exposures

Because ALEXIS is a spinning satellite, it is an ideal platform with which to study the time variability of the EUV cosmos. The main thrusts of this effort are to 1) detect EUV sources at known and unknown locations, 2) provide notification of transients in near real time to enable immediate follow-up from other observatories, and 3) create a time history of observed sources for comparison with previously published catalogs to aid in determining long duration variability from EUV sources.

When viewed from above the Earth's atmosphere, the nighttime ultraviolet sky background is profoundly dark. Recent measurements indicate that the diffuse UV sky background is up to 100 times (5 magnitudes) fainter than the equivalent visible background as measured from the ground. Much of this difference can be attributed to the Sun's lower emissivity at UV wavelengths, leading to reduced irradiation of and scattering by the interplanetary dust. Because the resulting Zodiacal light is so much weaker in the UV, a comprehensive characterization of the UV sky can yield important information on the more distant Galactic and extragalactic backgrounds and, ultimately, on their material origins (see Brosch, this volume, p. 57).

Over the last two decades observations of dust emission in the infrared have played an important role in the development of research on the interstellar medium. The study of the spectral energy distribution has led to the discovery of small dust particles including the large aromatic molecules (PAHs). Infrared sky images have been used to study the structure of interstellar matter, the evolution of dust within the interstellar medium and the star formation efficiency of interstellar clouds.

We review observational results concerning star formation and dense molecular clouds, the interstellar medium most relevant to star-formation process, as well as future prospects.

A complete census of embedded stellar population can be made by exploring in the infrared large areas of the sky in which giant molecular clouds extend. Very recently, thanks to the of large format IR array detectors, studies of young stellar population in GMCs, have been undertaken by different authors (i.e., Lada et al. 1991) but all these observations were limited to relatively small regions of the whole GMCs, the DENIS project (Epchtein, this volume, p. 106) surveys the south hemisphere at I, J and Ks bands, including most of these clouds.

The spectral range of ground and space-based observations has expanded rapidly in recent years. Essentially complete sky coverage is available in bands spanning more than 14 orders of magnitude in frequency, with varying sensitivities and resolutions. Remarkably, extended emission (and absorption) associated with the interstellar medium can be seen across this range. This poster illustrated the range of information now at hand for just a single interstellar cloud complex, that in Ophiuchus. This complex, well known for its abundant on-going star formation, is relatively nearby (∼125 pc), and well removed from the plane, offering the advantages of large angular size and little confusion in most bands from background Galactic emission.

This survey in the (J = 1 → 0) line of CO at 115 GHz was conducted in 1993 and 1994 using the 1.2m millimeter-wave telescope at the CfA (see Oliver et al. 1996 for more complete description). The survey area, l = 196.0° to l = 206.5°, b = −1.5° to b = +3.5° was covered on a square grid in l and b with spacings of 3′.75 (0.4 FWHM) to give uniform sensitivity. All the spectra were position switched against positions measured be free of CO to 0.05 K. Each spectrum has 256 channels 0.25 MHz wide, giving a resolution of 0.65 km s−1 over 166 km s−1. The channel to channel noise temperature in the original spectra was 0.24 K (RMS) which was reduced to 0.115 K per beam by smoothing to 10′.