These proceedings are from the fifth workshop of a series that concentrated on optical CCDs for the first four installments. At this workshop, for the first time, our "bandpass" was broadened to include infrared detectors. Every leading manufacturer, all major astronomical observatories and the experts in the field gathered on the Big Island of Hawaii for a week long workshop dedicated to scientific detectors for astronomy. This book captures the spirit of a unique event that was both an intensive exchange of technical information and a very friendly gathering of a cooperative community. The...

This book provides the most complete academic treatment on the application of polytropes ever published. It is primarily intended for students and scientists working in Astrophysics and related fields. It provides a full overview of past and present research results and is an indispensible guide for everybody wanting to apply polytropes.

Quasars, and the menagerie of other galaxies with "unusual nuclei," now collectively known as Active Galactic Nuclei or AGN, have, in one form or another, sparked the interest of astronomers for over 60 years. The only known mechanism that can explain the staggering amounts of energy emitted by the innermost regions of these systems is gravitational energy release by matter falling towards a supermassive black hole --- a black hole whose mass is millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun. AGN emit radiation at all wavelengths. X-rays originating at a distance of a few times the event...

The founding of the Dudley Observatory at Albany, N.Y., in 1852 was a milestone in humanity's age-old quest to understand the heavens. As the best equipped astronomical observatory in the U.S. led by the first American to hold a Ph.D. in astronomy, Benjamin Apthorp Gould Jr., the observatory helped pioneer world-class astronomy in America. It also proclaimed Albany's status as a major national center of culture, knowledge and affluence. This book explores the story of the Dudley Observatory as a 150 year long episode in civic astronomy. The story ranges from a bitter civic controversy to a...

Comets are small bodies, but of great cosmic relevance. Given its pristine nature, they may preserve valuable and unique information on thechemical and physical processes that took place in theearly solar system, and that may be occurring in the formation of other planetary systems. They might have even played a very important role in the origin of life on Earth. Beyond that, since ancient times comets have inspired awe, superstition, and also curiosity anddebate. Their sudden apparitions challenged the long-held view of the immutability of the heavens, which triggered a long debate on...

The field of solar physics and solar--terrestrial relation, now called space weather, is evolving rapidly. As in the first edition, it is assumed that it is inevitable for the reader to get some basic knowledge in solar physics since the Sun is the main driver for space weather The term space weather itself has been gaining more and more attention during the past years as our society becomes more and more dependent on satellites, which are vulnerable to varying conditions in space. Space weather efforts and investigations are being made all over the world and more and more is known about the...

It was with pleasure that CAUP became for three days the core to the cloud of star formation experts all over the world. Close to the celebration of its 15th anniversary therefore still in the early stages of institutional evolution we are proud of our multiple activities in Astronomy: a productive research centre, classi?ed as Institution of excellence within the Portuguese research units, but also an Institution of Public Utility as recognised by the Government. Fifteen years ago we choose to play a role not only in research, as expected from any research centre but also in the training of...

Leo Goldberg Kitt Peak National Observatory Tucson, Arizona 85726, U. S. A. Of all the reasons for exploring the Universe, none is more com- pelling than the possibility of discovering intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Still the quest for extraterrestrial life has been near the bottom of the astronomers' list of priorities, not because the number of extraterrestrial civilizations is conjectured to be van- ishingly small, but because our powers of detection were thought to be far too weak. About ten years ago, however, the growing reach of ra- dio telescopes on the ground and of...

Interest in statistical methodology is increasing so rapidly in the astronomical community that accessible introductory material in this area is long overdue. This book fills the gap by providing a presentation of the most useful techniques in multivariate statistics. A wide-ranging annotated set of general and astronomical bibliographic references follows each chapter, providing valuable entry-points for research workers in all astronomical sub-disciplines. Although the applications considered focus on astronomy, the algorithms used can be applied to similar problems in other...