Speckle Interferometer equipped with an ITT intensified CCD have been used on the NCUO ( National Central University Observatory, Taiwan) 24-inch telescope for studying the orbits of bright binary systems selected from the Yale's Bright Star Catalogue. The high resolution and high sensitivity ITT intensified solid state video camera ( F4577 ) has external gain and gate control functions which will simplify the design of the speckle camera and allow us to do precise speckle photometry. The goal of this project is trying to study the bright binary systems with separations between the average size of seeing disk and the diffraction limit of the 24-inch telescope. Recently some observing data have been reduced and compared with the other teams' results. We are now improving the data reduction technology and trying to use real time observing mode on the monthly routine observation.
We present the update information on the International Radio Astronomy Observatory Suffa project and describe the original design of new 70-m radiotelescope RT-70 for millimeter astronomy as well. Some oreographic, seeing and climatic features of Suffa are also given.
A 230 GHz SIS tunnel junction receiver has been being developed for radio astronomy in Nagoya University. In this heterodyne receiver, we use a $\~$ 수식 이미지1/3 reduced hight rectangular waveguide SIS mixer with two tuning elements as front end. The mixer block with SIS junction was cooled to 4K with a closed cycle He-gas refrigerator. So far, a double sideband receiver noise temperature lower than l00K in 222-237 GHz is obtained. The receiver exhibits a best DSB noise temperature of 69K at 236 GHz as well as 228 GHz.
Space Solar Telescope (SST) is a space project for solar research, its main parameters are that total weight 2.0T, sun synchronous polar circular orbit, altitude of the orbit 730KM, 3 axis stabilized attitude system, power 1200W, telemetry of the downlink rate 30Mb/s, size 5*2*2 M3, mission life 3 years. It is expected it will be launched in 2001 or later. The main objective is structure and evolution of solar vector magnetic field with very high spatial resolution. The payloads are consisted of 6 instruments: Main optical telescope with 1-M diameter and diffraction limited resolution 0.1 arc second, EUV imaging telescope with a bundle of four telescopes and 0.5 arc second resolution, spectrometric optical coronagraph, wide band spectrometer, H-alpha and white light telescope and solar and interplanetary radiospectrometer. An assessment study between China and Germany is under operation.
The VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP) is a worldwide project of one radio telescope in space with many ground radio telescopes. The concerted space VLBI network enables us to reveal high resolution and high quality images of radio sources. The space radio telescope is anticipated to be launched in January/February 1997, and collaborative observations have been coordinated. The basic parameters of the system and present status are given.
A few optical schemes for the future Russian astrometric satellite ('Struve') are discussed. New optical materials and techniques developed at the Vavilov State Optical Institute are planned to be used for the on-board telescopes. Optical characteristics of the reflecting Schmidt and a three - mirror scheme for the on-board telescopes are compared.
The Struve astrometric satellite which is being developed at Pulkovo Observatory in cooperation with Krasno-yarsk Institute of Applied Mechanics, S.I. Vavilov's State Optical Institute and some others space instrumentation institutes, will produce observations of a second epoch for the Hipparcos stars. The project is devoted to maintaining the Hipparcos coordinate system as well as extending it to a density of ≈ 100 stars per square degree. Possibilities of submilliarcsecond accuracy of observations with single aperture on-board telescopes are discussed. Requirements to the optical scheme and to the dynamic properties of the spacecraft are formulated. CCD and microchannel plates are discussed as a focal assembly detectors.
An x-ray astronomy experiment consisting of three collimated proportional counters and an X-ray Sky Monitor (XSM) was flown aboard the Indian Satellite IRS-P3 launched on March 21, 1996 from SHAR range in India. The Satellite is in a circular orbit of 830 km altitude with an orbital inclination of 98° and has three axis stabilized pointing capability. Each pointed-mode Proportional Counter (PPC) is a multilayer, multianode unit filled with P-10 gas (90% Ar + 10% CH4) at 800 torr and having an aluminized mylar window of 25 micron thickness. The three PPCs are identical and have a field of view of 2°×2° defined by silver coated aluminium honeycomb collimators. The total effective area of the three PPCs is about 1200 cm2. The PPCs are sensitive in 2-20 keV band. The XSM consists of a pin-hole of 1 cm2 area placed 16 cm above the anode plane of a 32 cm×32 cm position sensitive proportional counter sensitive in 3-8 keV interval. The position of the x-ray events is determined by charge division technique using nichrome wires as anodes. The principal objective of this experiment is to carry out timing studies of x-ray pulsars, x-ray binaries and other rapidly varying x-ray sources. The XSM will be used to detect transient x-ray sources and monitor intensity of bright x-ray binaries. Observations of black-hole binary Cyg X-1 and few other binary sources were carried out in early May and July-August 1996 period. Details of the x-ray detector characteristics are presented and preliminary results from the observations are discussed.
We have analyzed the content of the Korean stone star chart. Ch'on-Sang-Yul-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do(here-after Ch'on-Sang-Do). In the star map we have found 1468 stars, 4 more than the Chinese star catalog Bo-Chun-Ga. The four extra stars form a constellation, Jong Dae Boo. The map projection law used in the star chart is found to be the polar equtorial and equidistance projection. The linear distance of an object on Ch'on-Sang-Do from the center is linearly proportional to the north polar angular distance. We have found from a statistical analysis that most stars with declination lower than 50 are at positions representing the epoch of around the first century. On the other hand, stars near the north pole with declination higher than 50 are at the epoch of about 1300, which is close to the time the chart was engraved. This implies that the original Ko-Gu-Rye Dynasty's star chart has been revised by astronomers of Cho-Sun Dynasty. We have also shown that stars on Ch'on-Sang-Do are engraved in such a way that their area is linearly proportional to the visual magnitude.
The Chinese ancient accounts of timing observations of 48 lunar eclipses and the secular variation of the Earth's spin speed are discussed. A series of ΔT expressing the secular deceleration of the Earth's rotation was obtained. The average increase rate of length of the day is about 1.5 milliseconds per century.
From 146 B.C. to A.D. 1760, 363 sets of cometary observations have been recorded in Chinese Ancient Records of Celestial Phenomena. The positions of all recorded comets, or their paths, on the sky are compared. Taking into account the perturbations of all nine planets and using the numerical method of N-body problem, the orbits of well-recorded comets are calculated. Identification of a periodic comet is presented.
We introduce the National Science Curriculum issued by the Education Ministry in Korea. Astronomy should be given and taught as compulsory courses in Nature of elementary school, Science of middle school, General Science of high school, and as elective courses in Earth Science I, II. Astronomy concepts have been designed in sprial pattern. College levels of astronomy have been given as majoring in astronomy course, cultivating one for earth science pre-teacher students and cultural subjects for non-major students
There is a question, 'Which is beautiful, a flower or a star?'. Its answer is different from one person .to another. It is only a matter of what one is interested in. It is very difficult for most school pupils, who will have non-scientific jobs, to understand science courses taught currently in school, because each science (physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science) is independently taught from the other sciences. Therefore, their knowledge of sciences obtained during their school period does not significantly help their understanding of global environmental problems. I am proposing that several scientific stories should be prepared to connect all the related scientific phenomena in order to give those pupils ideas in understanding global environmental problems. I believe that astronomy is able to play an important role in this context.