This report does not intend to give a complete review of all the papers that appeared since the previous General Assembly but to focus on a few subjects only.

In this work we present characteristics of the Romanian higher education related to the study of Astronomy. In spite of Romanian economic problems, opportunities for Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree (at “Babes-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca) and Ph.D. degree are provided for students enrolled in the Faculties of Mathematics or Physics. General regulations, description of courses, research resources and job opportunities are also described and discussed in this paper.

The JD 16 was held on August 25, 1997 as one-day session with the title of “Spectroscopy with Large Telescope of Chemically Peculiar Stars”. It was supported by the Division IV and Commissions 14, 27, 29, 36, and 45.

The members of SOC were: G. Alecian, J. Babel, M. Gerbaldi, R. O. Gray, G. Mathys, P. North, M. Takada-Hidai (Chairperson), and J. Zverko (Co-chairperson).

15 talks and 18 contributed posters were presented on six topics of (1) model atmospheres and atomic data, (2) stellar parameters, (3) LTE and NLTE abundance analyses, (4) diffusion processes, (5) magnetic fields, and (6) variabilities. Approximate number of participants amounted to 50 at maximum.

Thailand is one of the developing countries which tries to advance its economy, technology and science. Education in astronomy is considered a supporting factor; astronomy is a basic science from which the young generation can learn to understand and to conserve mother nature and at the same time develop analytical thinking. The poster reports the present developments in astronomical education in Thailand which includes (1) current astronomy education in school and university; (2) educational activities outside school; (3) development of programs for teaching astronomy in school (including teacher training); (4) the access of educational resources via internet. Proposals for future development and collaborations will be presented and discussed. (Co-authors are B. Soonthornthum and T. Kirdkao.)

This report covers the period July 1, 1996 (the closing date of the reports in the IAU Trans. 23A) through August 31, 1999. Since the reports of Commissions 27 and 42 that follow highlight the research made in the triennium, we limit ourselves here to organizational activities of the Division. The first three sections are devoted to the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS), the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars (IBVS), and the Archives of Unpublished Observations of Variable Stars, the important projects that serve us all. I am indebted to the authors, listed in the sections headings, for providing these summaries. The problems of naming and classifying variable stars, implicit in Sect. 2, are taken up in Sect. 5. The last section lists meetings sponsored by the Division.

Great cultures have created language. They have discovered its strength among other reasons for education. For a long time the Bible was one of the few books available in western culture, its influence is beyond any doubt. Many developing nations have no science books in their mother tongue. They might carry a few translations but these do not convey the local culture so it is harder for students to grasp the concepts and to build on what they know. Books, even if they are extremely simple, should be written in local languages because that will facilitate the conveying of knowledge and the creation of scientific culture. In the books examples that pertain to every day local life must be given, in particular examples that have to do with women. Women play a central role in developing nations by child bearing; if they become literate they will influence enormously the quality of their children’s education, in particular their science comprehension. In México a collection that includes astronomy books has recently been edited by the National Council for Culture and Arts. The books are small and light, which encourages middle-school students to carry them around and read them while traveling in public transportation, such as the subway. Every other page is a new subject, that carries illustrations, abstracts and conclusions. The astronomy books are on search for extraterrestrial life, the stars and the universe. These books are distributed nation-wide and are inexpensive. They have been written by Mexican astronomers.

For Commission 27 these triennial reports have traditionally been very compact literature reviews of all the fields relevant to our commission. For several triennia we have been discussing the relevance of them, and asking just who their readership is. It seems that only a few people read them, and fewer use them as introductions to the subject – supposedly one of their prime purposes. The major beneficiaries have been the writers, who have been forced to do three-year reviews of their subjects. The IAU EC gave us the option this triennium of a shorter, four-page report to which the majority of the SOC agreed.

This is the last triennial report of Commission 42 for this millennium. A great deal has been accomplished in the study of Close Binary Stars (CBS) since the discovery of the first close (eclipsing) binary, Algol, in 1783 by John Goodricke. Now, over 10,000 CBS (most eclipsing variables) are known. More than 5000 of these CBS were discovered over the last several years alone! And many more are expected to be detected over the next few years. Most of these stars were found as spin-offs of microlensing surveys. Interestingly, nearly half of these stars are found outside our Galaxy, primarily in the Magellanic Clouds and M31. Every type of star is represented as a member of a close binary. These include main sequence (as well as pre-main sequence) stars, giants, and supergiants, with the entire possible range of of spectral types and masses represented. Moreover, “dying” stars and “dead” stars, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and, more recently, even brown dwarfs and giant planets (e.g., 51 Peg) have been found as members of close binary systems.

Here I will describe the inclusion of astronomy and astrophysics in College level courses of Bangalore University. I will describe the role of the Inter -University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune in making available instruments such as photometers and CCD cameras at low cost to aid teaching of astronomy as well as the running of a large number of training programmes for teachers and students. I will also describe some outstanding problems and suggested solutions.

The Summer Schools have been organised by the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) for European teachers. The first was organised in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain, the second was organised in 1998 in Pregene, Italy and the third in 1999, during the week of the eclipse in Briey, Prance, on the line of total darkness. We had a cloudy eclipse, but fortunately we could observe it. The fourth one was held in July 2000 in Tavira, Portugal. About 50 participants are involved in each Summer School. In the last, participants came from 14 countries. The activities are organised in General Lectures, Working Groups and Workshops for reduced groups and day and night Observations. To increase communication, each Summer School has three official languages: the language of the host country, English and another well-known by the participants. The proceedings are published beforehand with all the contents to facilitate participation. Each paper appears in English and another language.

Division VI of the International Astronomical Union deals with Interstellar Matter, and incorporates Commission 34. It gathers astronomers studying the diffuse matter in space between the stars, ranging from primordial intergalactic clouds via dust and neutral and ionised gas in galaxies to the densest molecular clouds and the processes by which stars are formed. There are approximately 730 members. The working groups in Planetary Nebulae and Cosmochemistry have served us well in organising periodic seminars in these subject areas. However, the Organising Committee has recognised that other developing areas of the ISM are not properly represented in the current organisation. In January 1997, the Division formed a new ISM working group on Star Forming Regions including cross-divisional representation to monitor progress in their fields and to help develop proposals for future IAU Symposia or Colloquia. In the future, especially in view of the rapid developments in spaceborne X-ray and IR astronomy, Division VI also hopes to form other working groups on the Hot ISM and the Extragalactic ISM.

We organized the Leonids observing network that comprised of 276 observation teams consisting of about 3,000 senior high-school students in Japan on Nov. 17 1998. We counted the visible meteors with our naked eyes. It was a simple method, but the many data enabled us to discuss the structure of the dust trail. However, the base-line is so short that we could not discuss the structure in full detail. In 1999, we organized a worldwide network of senior high-school students. The network is comprised of 307 teams from 23 countries. The base-line of our new project is the size of the Earth. We succeeded in making 20 hours continuous observations with this network. One of the observational teams in Tanzania encountered the Leonid meteor storm. We report on the scientific results and the educational aspects of these projects. (Web site: www.leonids.net/) (Leonids ‘98-’99 staff – co-authors – are A. Miyashita, M. Okyudo, H. Agata, T. Mizuno, T. Hamane K. Watanabe of Japan, C. Pennypaker, A. Gould, K. McCarron, G. Reagan and K. Meredith, of the U.S.A.)

The field of Molecular Astrophysics or “Astrochemistry” has grown considerably since its inception in the late 1930’s. Molecules have been observed in astronomical environments as diverse as comets in the solar system and galaxies at the highest redshifts. The common thread in these studies is that molecules are excellent probes of the physical structure and dynamics of such regions, owing to the complexity of their energy level structure and the resulting emission and absorption spectra. In addition, the chemical characteristics provide a powerful tool to study the evolution of astrophysical regions. Molecules also play an active role in the energy balance of clouds. Interstellar space is a unique laboratory in which chemical processes can occur that are not normally found on Earth. Indeed, astrochemistry is a highly interdisciplinary subject, linking the macrocosm (galaxies, stars, planets) with the microcosm (basic chemical processes and spectroscopy). The increased potential of ground- and space-based observational facilities over the full wavelength range provides a wealth of information about the physical environments in which molecules occur and makes it possible to study the development of molecular complexity throughout the Universe.