Precise determination of dynamical masses of pre-main-sequence stars is essential for calibrating stellar evolution models, that are widely used to derive theoretical masses of young low-mass objects. We have determined the individual masses of the pair AB Dor Ba/Bb using Australian Long Baseline Array observations and archive infrared data, as part of a larger program directed to monitor binary systems in the AB Doradus moving group. We have detected, for the first time, compact radio emission from both stars. This has allowed us to determine the orbital parameters of both the relative and absolute orbits and, consequently, their individual dynamical masses: 0.28±0.05 M⊙ and 0.25±0.05 M⊙. Comparisons of the dynamical masses with the prediction of pre-main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary models show that the models underpredict the dynamical masses of the binary components Ba and Bb by 10–30% and 10–40%, respectively.

The high resolution obtained through the use of VLBI gives an unique opportunity to directly observe the interaction of an expanding radio supernova with its surrounding medium. We present here results from our VLBI observations of the young supernovae SN 1979C, SN 1986J, and SN 2001gd.

An accurate measurement of the expansion deceleration of SN 1993J depends on how well the shell size and its emission structure are known. With the goal of determining the emission structure of the shell, we have developed a new approach, which we call “Green Function Deconvolution” (GFD), based on iterative use of Green functions on the sky plane to reconstruct the radial emission profiles of spherically symmetric sources. This approach works reasonably well in the case of optically thin emitting sources, which is not the case for SN 1993J since, as we find, the emission from the central part of SN 1993J further away from us is strongly or totally absorbed. We describe the GFD method and present our findings about the emission structure of the shell. We also present the expansion of SN 1993J based on a method complementary to GFD, which will be described elsewhere.

The link of the Hipparcos and VLBI extragalactic reference frames has been achieved with a precision of 0.0005″ in global orientation at the epoch of the catalogue (1991.25) and of 0.0003″/yr in rate of rotation by VLBI observations of 12 radio-emitting stars.

The technique of differential astrometry using the phase-delay VLBI observable promises fractional precisions of ≃2 × 10–9 in the determination of the separation of sources 5° or 6° apart on the sky (Guirado et al. 1995a; Lara et al. 1996). In our present research we seek further improvement in this technique through using triplets of radio sources, which provide a closure constraint in the determination of relative angular positions. This constraint not only eases the resolution of the phase-cycle ambiguities (a major problem in the least-squares approach to astrometry with phase delays), but it also strongly constrains the space of allowable parameter values.

We show preliminary results of three of the four radiosource pairs with angular separations ranging from 0.01° to 6° where we have determined such a separation with a typical fractional precision of 10−8 using phase delays corrected for structural and ionospheric contributions. In the radiosource 4C39.25 we measure a motion with respect to an external radiosource which is compatible with previously reported internal superluminal motion.