th The 4 ESO CCO Workshop, Optical Detectors for Astronomy, was held during September 13-16, 1999 at its usual location, the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany. We prefer to remember this workshop as a "meeting of friends," who came to Garching to visit ESO and to present their work, rather than a formal meeting. Based on our experience with the 1996 ESO CCO workshop, we deliberately put emphasis on creating an environment that encouraged the participants to stay together and informally exchange ideas. These informal events began with a tour of the BWM auto...

In the early years of the twentieth century, Victor Hess of Germany flew instruments in balloons and so discovered in 1912 that an extra- errestial radiation of unknown origin is incident on the earth with an almost constant intensity at all times. These penetrating non solar radiations which were called Cosmic Rays by Millikan, USA, opened the new frontier of space physics and many leading scientists were attracted to it. At the end of World War II a number of space vehicles, e.g. stratospheric balloons, rockets and satellites were developed. In 1950 and onwards, these vehicles enabled...

In May 1976, when one of us was temporarily associated with Stras bourg Observatory for lecturing on distance determination methods (Heck 1978), Pierre Lacroute - then in his last year as Director there - mod estly requested comments on a project he had been cherishing for quite a few years, and which he had been presenting to visitors and colleagues: an astrometric satellite. His persuasiveness and persistence won support from the scientific com munity, from the French space agency CNES and from the European Space Agency (ESA): the Hipparcos satellite was born. It was fitting that Lacroute...

A conference on 'Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe' was held in Calcutta during January 10-17, 1998. This was the first time that experts had gathered to debate and discuss topics such as: Should black holes exist? If so, how to detect them? Have we found them? This book is the essence of this gathering. Black holes are enigmatic objects since it is impossible to locate them through direct observations. State-of-the-art theoretical works and numerical simulations have given us enough clues of what to look for. Observations, from both ground and space-based...

Edith Alicia Muller (1918-1995) was the IAU General Secretary from 1976 to 1979, the first woman to have this responsibility. Many friends, students and colleagues, and others who have met Edith at different occasions, give in this book their memories of her. Her fundamental work in solar physics concerned the chemical composition of the Sun, the time variation of its infra-red spectrum, and its thermal structure. Her interests were, however, far broader than that. She was heavily involved in international work for the teaching of astronomy and for the exchange program of young astronomers."

The study of the fine structure of solar radio emissions is key to understanding plasma processes in the solar corona. It remains a reliable means for both diagnosing the corona and verifying the results of laboratory plasma experiments on wave-wave and wave-particle interactions. This monograph provides a comprehensive review of the fine structure of solar radio bursts. Based on the diversity of experimental data resulting from the progress made in observational techniques, the validity of various theoretical models is reexamined. The book serves as an up-to-date reference work for all...

x about a sequence of reVlew lectures, each followed by contributed talks and discussions. The opening session was devoted to reviewing the most recent results concerning the determination of chemical abundances in particularly inte- resting objects providing direct evidence for stellar nucleosynthesis (like planetary nebulae, supernovae and supernova remnants). In Session 2 recent results on some relevant nuclear reaction rates have been presented. Session 3 grouped the contributions concerning the quasi-static evolution of normal stars, its relevance for the nucleosynthesis of the varlOUS...

The idea of holding a colloquium on Schmidt telescopes (techniques and science) originated from the observation that, in the last ten years and in spite of the remarkable developments and achievements in this field of astronomical research, there had been no specific opportunity for the experts to meet together, make the point on the state of the art, discuss and coordinate future plans. Therefore, Prof. L. Rosino, one of the pioneers in the use of wide-field telescopes, driven also by the wish of honouring the over four decades of activity of the Asiago Observatory, proposed to the Executive...

The idea of holding this workshop on "The Jllilky Way" arose at the conference dinner of a meeting on "Regions of Recent Star Formation" held at Penticton in June 1981. Leo Blitz (now at the University of Maryland) and I decided that there was a need, and agreed that we would organize one in Vancouver in the Spring of 1982. The purpose of the workshop was to have an intensive exchange of ideas between some of the most active workers in the field regarding the recent work which has been significantly changing our concepts of the Milky Way. To achieve this we limited the number of participants,...

Colloquium No. 72 of the International Astronomical Union covered many observations and theoretical developments in the field of cataclysmic variables and related objects. Much time was devoted to discussions and we made an effort to include as much of the discussions material as possible in the proceedings. The Local Organizing Committee would like to thank; The International Astronomical Union for travel grants The Israel Academy of Sciences for financial support The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for financial support and assistance Bank Leumi Le-Israel for a generous support We...