No.

78 - December 1994

Please pay particular attention to the article on page 3: "Science on La Silla in the VLT Era"
and to the "Questionnaire to the ESC Community" which is distributed with this issue of The Messenger

Current Status of ESC

Speech to the Staff at the ESO Garching Headquarters on December 6, 1994
R. GIACCONI, Director General of ESO

The past year saw a number of impor- (Royal Observatories, UK), C. Fransson ESO's strengths and weaknesses and
tant developments in and around ESO. (Stockholm Observatory, Sweden), K. provide us with a clear road map to im-
Considering all of these together makes Freeman (Mt. Stromlo and Siding Spring provement.
me feel confident about the future of this Observatory, Australia), J. Geiss (Uni- In particular, the report of the Visit-
organization and our ability to success- versitat Bern, Switzerland), J. Huchra ing Committee states that ESO should
fully complete the current major task, the (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astro- provide facilities which will enable Euro-
VLT project. physics, USA), R. Kudritzki (Universitats- pean astronomers to carry out outstand-
I here summarize the most important Sternwarte Munchen, Germany), G. Mi- ing science that can better be done in a
issues. It is obvious that with ESO's many ley (Sterrewacht Leiden, The Nether- global European context than nationally
simultaneous and quite diverse under- lands; Chair), G. Monnet (Observatoire and that the paramount criterion in deter-
takings, we are stronger in certain areas de Lyon, France). mining relative priorities should be that
than in others. While we have done quite Following intense work that included of scientific excellence. The Committee
well in some, we must try to improve our visits to ESO's installations in Europe finds that several aspects of ESO have
performance in others. and Chile and discussions with many been more responsive to scientific prior-
staff members, the ESO Visiting Com- ities in the recent years.
1. Visiting Committee Report mittee has now delivered its preliminary The report furthermore notes that
report about the scientific side of ESO. there is a severe shortage of staff both
Until recently, ESO was unique among Without going into its many detailed ob- in Garching and at La Silla. An impor-
large astronomy organizations in not servations and recommendations, it is tant part concentrates on the ESO staff
having a "Visiting Committee" to evalu- satisfying to note that it agrees very well astronomers, their functional duties and
ate its scientific and technological perfor- with our perceived mission of ESO. To- research programmes; without good as-
mance. Immediately after I came to ESO, gether with the Audit report about the tronomers it will be impossible to carry
I therefore established such a Commit- more programmatic side, earlier released through ESO's very diverse services to
tee with the following distinguished as- by the Team headed by N. Lund, they the scientific communities in the member
tronomers as members: A. Boksenberg form an important basis of understanding countries.
 The Visiting Committee also discusses December 1, 1994. It took a number of help ESO to catch up in this very impor-
many aspects of the VLT project. It is of decisions of importance for the organiza- tant field.
the opinion, and I fully concur, that a bet- tion and its staff. We will get an overview of the future
ter and clearer tie-in between the VLT In particular, it confirmed a 1995 bud- needs for VLT instrumentation when the
project and the scientific requirements is get for ESO at the level of 138 mil- Vigroux Committee delivers its report at
needed for the future. I certainly intend lion DM and approved a planning budget the extraordinary STC Meeting in Febru-
to pursue this goal with great zeal. It also for 1996-98 at 141 million DM (at 1995 ary 1995. Another Working Group has
stresses that the number of instruments cost). I note that this represents a 12 per been set up that will take a close look
currently being constructed is insufficient cent increase in the ESO budget at a time at which telescopes and instruments will
to exploit the VLT adequately. when most research programmes in the be needed at La Silla in the year 2000.
The Committee attaches great impor- member countries have difficulties; this I expect that in close conformity with the
tance to the interferometric capabilities ensures that steady progress will con- main goals of ESO, this organization will
of the VLT and states that failure to im- tinue for the all-important VLT project. then only be responsible for some major
plement the VLTI will diminish the effec- Still, Council also requested a 3 million instruments there which could not easily
tiveness of the VLT investment for Euro- DM reduction on the expenditure side for be run by individual countries.
pean science. Finally, the La Silla Obser- 1995 as compared to the already very One of the major issues now facing
vatory receives considerable attention in tight proposal of the ESO Executive and us is the elaboration of a Chile Opera-
the report. While the Committee is gen- it is now up to us to carry this out in the tions Plan which ensures that ESO's fu-
erally impressed by the quality and man- most efficient way. It will not be easy, but ture facilities in that country can be opti-
agement of the observatory, it does com- I am confident that with the active and mally exploited in the new century. A pro-
ment on certain shortcomings and makes positive involvement of all of you, it can visional document was prepared by D.
a number of suggestions for changes. be done in an efficient and sensible way. Baade and J. Crocker. It was presented
The work of the Visiting Committee Council also approved our proposal for at the recent meetings of STC and Coun-
has been extremely useful and this type staff salaries next year, as well as the cur- cil, both of which expressed agreement
of survey of ESO will from now on be- rent ESO plans for Rules on Transfer of to the general ideas. The plan shows that
come a permanent feature to be re- Staff to Chile for the VLT Commissioning. it will in principle be possible to bring
peated every two years. I moreover in- down the costs of operating the VLT, as
tend to stay in contact with the members 4. VLT Highlights compared to earlier estimates. The im-
of the Visiting Committee and to ask for portant aspect is that by building all the
their advice on important matters, for in- The VLT project has been progressing right features into the operation from the
stance in connection with appointments well during the past year. As a very visible very beginning, there will be no need to
of new staff in senior positions. It is very demonstration of this, most of you have make expensive adjustments afterwards.
obvious that ESO needs the best as- probably seen the two enormous scale It is the overall aim to ensure that the
tronomers and that we must take imme- models of the primary mirror cell, now best possible science will be done with
diate steps to work towards better inter- on display in the tent outside the Head- the VLT. The plan therefore foresees that
action between our geographically sepa- quarters building. They provide us with ESO will become responsible for the sci-
rate locations: in the future, ESO should a dramatic impression of the real size of entific quality of the observations, that is,
become one observatory with two ob- this enormous telescope. by putting a lot of emphasis on calibra-
serving sites. I will mention other actions We are at this moment proceeding tion and monitoring and improvement of
in response to this report later in this talk. with negotiations of the contract for this instrumental performance. This can be
cell, and it appears that, despite some done with less staff than originally fore-
2. Chile delays with the contract for the sec- seen and with a significant amount of ser-
ondary mirror, first light of the first unit vice observing as the central feature.
You are all aware that the future rela- VLT telescope will only be delayed by a I take great personal interest in these
tions between the Republic of Chile and few months. It is now expected to hap- matters and look forward to learn the ex-
ESO are being discussed at this mo- pen at the end of 1997, possibly at the perience with the NTT during the next
ment, most notably during the negotia- beginning of 1998. years when parts of the concepts for the
tions that will eventually lead to an Inter- The civil engineering work at Paranal VLT will be tried out.
pretative, Supplementary and Amending is proceeding at very high speed. There Also in this connection, we are now
Agreement between the two. are now twice as many people on the taking the necessary steps to set up
The main points are concerned with mountain as originally foreseen, working a VLT Assembly-Verification-Integration
the granting of guaranteed observing shifts around the clock. (AVI) group.
time to scientifically meritorious observ- The importance we attach to keeping
ing programmes proposed by Chilean open the interferometric option for the 5. Scientific Activities
astronomers, many of which will be in VLT is underlined by the recent appoint-
collaboration with astronomers from the ment of F. Paresce as VLTI project sci- J. Bergeron was appointed Associate
ESO member countries, as well as incor- entist. There will be a VLTI Symposium Director for Science. Regular Faculty
poration of elements of Chilean labour in the spring of 1995 and the continued Meetings are now taking place with
legislation into ESO Rules and Regula- drive towards membership of Australia the participation of ESO senior scientific
tions for Local Staff. will have a major impact on this area of staff. At the same time, the new internal
There is no doubt that both ESO and the VLT project. Scientific Policy Committee (SPC) has
Chile will gain from this new Agreement, A VLT System Group headed by T. An- worked very successfully.
once it has been ratified by the Chilean dersen is being created and we have pro- There have been a numberof scientific
Parliament and the ESO Council. duced an end-to-end VLT model. meetings during the past year, including
The VLT instrumentation is on sched- the very successful Workshops on the
3. Council Meeting ule and a new Instrumentation Division Use of the VLT in June and Quasar Ab-
has been created with G. Monnet as sorption Lines in November. The comet
The ESO Council met during its regu- Head. J. Beletic has been appointed impact on Jupiter in July provided ESO
lar winter meeting on November 30 and Head of a new CCD Group which will with an opportunity to interact in a very

2
positive way with the media and the pub- mentation of the Work Package Struc- • Scientific priorities in VLTI, VLT and
lic. Educational issues were discussed ture (WPS); the Management Informa- La Silla operations
during the joint EU/ESO Workshop on tion System (MIS) is still to come. These • Scientific methodology
Teaching of Astronomy in Europe's Sec- changes must be accompanied by a very • VLT Execution
ondary Schools. careful scrutiny of the way ESO spends • VLTI Design and Planning
In Chile, the ESO staff astronomers its money. Although the budget of our or- • La Silla reduction in quantity and
were re-Iocated to the Vitacura office in ganization may seem large, we also have improvement in quality
Santiago. From now on they will work many tasks to carry out. We must set • Shift from development to
here when they are not at La Silla. This strict priorities and avoid all unnecessary operations
will probably also result in better contacts expenses. • Improvement in efficiency
with their Chilean colleagues. • Better fiscal and management
control
6. Administrative Matters 7. Basic Themes for 1995 We want ESO to be one of the best
observatories in the world, if possible the
Mr. W. Buschmeier took over as Finally, I state here some of the basic best one. This can be done, but it will not
Head of Administration and among many themes for 1995: be easy! Let us work together towards
other tasks is responsible for the imple- • Excellence in science this common goal!

Science on La Silla in the VLT Era

J. ANDERSEN, Chairman, ESO-STC

Over the next 6-8 years, the VLTwill from ESO: Jacqueline Bergeron, Asso- gest that some specific cut has de facto
enter full operation on Paranal. Construc- ciate Director for Science; Jim Crocker, been decided already: it has not.
tion is going ahead full blast on all tele- Head of Programme Office; and Jorge
scopes and the instruments for UT1 and Melnick, Head of Operations, La Silla;
from the Users Committee: Michel Den-
The Key Questions
2, while instrumentation plans for UT 3-
4 are in the definition phase. The re- nefeld and Hans Schild; and from the In order to facilitate a structured dis-
cent ESO Workshop on "Science with the STC: Johannes Andersen (Chair) and cussion, the Working Group has defined
VLT" was one of the ways in which ESO Sergio Ortolani. The Working Group a few main programme categories within
is involving its user community in the pro- may co-opt additional members later, which needs can be assessed:
cess of defining the final VLT instrumen- but stresses from the outset that one of
tation programme. its most important tasks is to organize Stand-alone programmes for La Silla
In the VLT era, the functions and the widest possible consultation with the
ESO user community. Which programmes will continue to be
boundary conditions of the La Silla obser-
vatory will no doubt see drastic changes, The first full-day formal meeting was done best (only?) from La Silla?
for two main reasons: held on October 27. The Working Group
Preparations for VLT programmes
1. Many of the highest priority scientific set up a schedule for its work, defined
programmes will move to the VLT. Expe- its strategy for consulting the community, Which (new) programmes will be
rience shows that new tasks for medium- and identified and structured the main needed to prepare VLT projects?
size telescopes will also appear. questions to address. Some first recom-
2. In making large investments in our mendations will be needed for the 1996 Follow-up of VLT programmes
unique new research tool in times of fi- budget proposal. Which (new) programmes for La Silla
nancial hardship, our governments ex- will be generated by the VLT?
pect, in return, that we trim all ESO oper- A Call to the Community
ations and optimize the scientific output VLT programme off-loading
of our resources. Clearly, no credible planning can start Which (new) programmes can be
The VLT project is proceeding vigor- before the scientific plans and priorities of done most efficiently in tandem between
ously on a credible schedule. Modern the user community are known. Hence, the VLT and La Silla?
management tools are going into place the first action of the Working Group is to
which will allow rational cost/benefit anal- issue a call to the community for advice, In all of these types of programme,
yses. Thus the time is ripe to prepare direction and help in our further work, your scientific needs will translate into re-
specific plans for the long-term future of through this article and accompanying quirements for La Silla and its instrumen-
La Silla. questionnaire (also distributed directly by tation. Some of these derived questions
mail). are listed below; please consider them,
A New Working Group To avoid misunderstanding we em- but by no means feel limited to these top-
phasize that, at this time, there is no a ics:
The Director General has appointed a priori limit on the number, size or instru- • Scientific goals and requirements:
small Working Group to address the title mentation of ESO telescopes to be oper- Fie!d, limiting magnitude, wavelength
subject of this article. Its task is to pro- ated on La Silla in the future, nor on the range. Are your needs met by present
pose a long-term plan for the equipment operational costs. instruments? If not, what are the highest-
and operation of La Silla, consistent with Clearly, the final plan must conform to priority future needs, taking into account
the scientific priorities of the community the realities of our limited resources, but facilities elsewhere?
and with the available resources. no idea or suggestion should be with- • Wavelength coverage: Are there
Members of the Working Group are, held at this time because rumours sug- serious (if perhaps temporary) gaps in

3
wavelength coverage of the planned VLT • Simultaneous observations: What is widest possible distribution to colleagues
instruments? the need? of all ranks - not least the younger ones
• For wide-field imaging: Field size, who will be the most affected by the re-
ml I1H , wavelength, detector type. Educational aspects of La Silla sult.
• For wide-field spectroscopy: Same As a somewhat separate, but signifi- The Working Group will consider all
questions, plus requirement on sky sub- cant issue, is La Silla important in training replies with equal interest and attention.
traction (fibres or multi-slits). the new generation of European obser- Our draft conclusions and proposals will
• Spatial resolution: What are the vational astronomers? If so, how should be discussed with the community in sev-
needs for tip-tilt corrected images or full it be organized? eral iterations, possibly including some
adaptive optics? form of Workshop.
• Spectral resolution: Where is high- Please send your reply to the ESO
resolution spectroscopy done most effi- All Hands on Deck! Headquarters in Garching (Attention: La
ciently? If on the VLT, is an interim solu- Silla 2000 w.G., c/o S. Teupke) before
tion needed on La Silla? This article and the questionnaire was February 1, 1995.
• Continuous, long-term monitoring: sent in early November 1994 to Insti-
What is the need for La Silla-size tele- tute Directors and individual scientists ESO's planning must continue. In your
scopes? Dedicated telescopes run by in- throughout the ESO Member States. The own interest, take this opportunity to help
dependent teams? Working Group strongly encourages the us make the best of it!

TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION

N-Band Long-Slit Grism Spectroscopy with TIMMI

at the 3.6-m Telescope
H. u. KAUFL, ESO-Garching
Careful readers of The Messenger side a Solid Nitrogen/Liquid Helium cryo- assembly (slit-width::::; 0.9 arcsec). Be-
may remember that the acronym TIMMI stat. Its optical principle is best described hind an f = 103 mm collimator there is
stands for Ihermal !nfrared Multi!D.ode as an 'infrared EFOSC'. Fortechnical de- a 3.6 mm 0 pupil stop. A filter wheel is
!nstrument. So far, however, TIMMI could tails see e.g. Kaufl et al. 1992 or 1994. located behind that pupil stop in the colli-
be offered as a monomode instrument The telescope focal plane is located in- mated beam. The grisms are mounted to
(i.e. imaging) only. This has now changed side of the dewar. In the focal plane there the filter wheel. This is followed by a lens
and TIMMI has become a true multi- is a mechanism to exchange the cryo- wheel. All three mechanical functions of
mode instrument, combining imaging genic field mask with a cryogenic slit TIMMI are operated remotely under com-
and longslit spectroscopy with ;,>.
~ 200
for the 10 /-1m atmospheric window. The
long-slit spectroscopic mode is now im-
plemented utilizing grisms. Rather en-
couraging tests and scientific exposures
on astronomical objects have been pos-
sible. The grisms in TIMMI have been
manufactured utilizing anisotropic etch-
ing of mono-crystalline silicon which has
a refractive index of ~ 3.4. While grisms
are widely used in optical and near in-
frared instrumentation, TIMMI is proba-
bly the first astronomical instrument for
the 10 /-1m atmospheric window ever us-
ing grisms manufactured from such high-
index materials.

I' 11/11"/"111""/'''1111 il{fI III

/////////~lJ///I7fltI/I/II7JIIII/ 14 1 ~1111711/~111111/~lllllllllllnllllrnlll
1. Short Description of TIMMP
I 51
Like all infrared instruments TIMMI is ~~:..'-!..!..;'..!..!..!..!:!..!..!..!..!!.I!.!.I!11 !J..1I!J..1I!.J.:1I/lII'.J1UIlIIIII LIlli" /I L ,L ... L I 9 Ja
a cryogenic instrument. It is mounted in-
Figure 1: The rare but essential ingredients are shown. The three grisms are mounted in one
fixture to the filter wheel. For each grism the order sorting filter, the base prism and the silicon
lThe TIMMI project started in July 1990 when wafer carrying the diffractive structure had to be mounted in a space of less than 1 cm 3 . The
ESO signed a contract with the Service d'Astro-
mount needed to be designed compatible with operation at 60 K. The silicon wafer is mounted
physique of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
(Principal Investigator: P.O. Lagage). The instrument in direct optical contact to the prism, and great care was required during assembly to avoid
was then built by the SAP according to ESO's spec- contamination of the optical surfaces. It was also required to carefully adjust the orientation of
ification in a period of two years. the grooves parallel to the apex of the prism.

4
puter control. TIMMI is mounted at ESO's
3.6-m telescope in the f/35 configu- •
ration. The camera features a 64x64
element Gallium doped Silicon photo- •
conductor array bonded to a silicon Di-
rect Voltage Read-out (DVR) circuit 2 .
Various magnifications can be chosen (at
present 0.3 arcsec/pix, 0.46 arcsec/pix
and 0.6 arcsec/pix). For the long-slit
spectroscopic mode the 0.6 arcsec/pix
scale is used which allows for a useful slit
lengt~ of TIMMI on the sky of ::::; 35 arc-
sec. •• I •
•
I_
Because of the strong background ra-
•
• -~ •
diation emitted by atmosphere and tele- • •• • • •
scope in this part of the spectrum the ob-
servations need to be done in chopping
and nodding mode.
• •
• • '. •
+
• • • ~ •
!.ii

While TIMMI provides new and fairly • •

• •
unique observational possibilities for the
ESO users community, it was also sup-
posed to be a test-bed to gain experience
• )if
•
•
• • • • i
for similar instrumentation at the VLT.

2. The Silicon/Germanium
... I
11:1

Grisms 3
•
'-'<;,;

The standard technology to produce

grisms for visible and near infrared ap- • It
plications is to replicate ruled gratings •
with resins to the back of glass prisms.
Unfortunately, this technology cannot be Figure 2: This shows the long slit spectrum obtained for Ie 418 after 1 hour of integration. The
applied to the spectral domain relevant bright emission of [Neill at A = 12.8~,m of the ionized gas as well as the thermal continuum
for TIMMI because of the strong inter- radiation of the dust can clearly be seen. North is up, increasing A to the right. The scale along
nal absorption of these resins at >. ::::; the slit is 0.6 arcsec per pixel.
10/-lm. Moreover, for a given diameter of
the collimated beam in a spectrograph,
a grism made from material with refrac-
tive indices n of order 1.5 has roughly a mass with respect to normal spectro- grisms from a commercial source. Stan-
factor of 4 less dispersive power than a graphs. dard grating ruling techniques with a
standard reflection grating. Grisms are an extremely convenient diamond stylus are incompatible with
For a given collimator size the disper- and elegant way to convert a camera the relatively large groove spacing re-
sion of grisms scales with (n-1). When into a long slit spectrograph. Since the quired (of the order of 10 pm) and
using high-index infrared optical matri- centre (i.e. zero deviation) wavelength the material properties of Germanium
als such as Silicon (n ::::; 3.4) or Ger- is determined to first order only by the and Silicon (both are crystalline mate-
manium (n ::::; 3.9 at T = 77K) the dis- geometry of the grism itself but not by rials with diamond like structure). ESO
persion is typically 5-6 times that of a its orientation with respect to the optical therefore concluded a contract with
glass/resin grism. For a given collimator axis, such a spectrograph is intrinsically the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Institut fUr
size a Germanium grism then also has very stable and rather simple from a me- Festkbrpertechnologie, MOnchen) to pro-
::::; 50% higher dispersion than a normal chanical point of view. There is no need duce such gratings from monocrystalline
reflection grating. This is extremely im- for the delicate and complicated high- Germanium or Silicon wafers. The manu-
portant and beneficial for infrared instru- precision grating mounts (n.b. working facturing of small silicon gratings is rather
ments since it can allow to reduce the in vacuum at 60-80 K) required in nor- straightforward since it is based on stan-
size of the cryostats typically by 33% lin- mal infrared spectrographs. This, how- dard techniques used for solid-state en-
early or by 70% in volume and hence ever, also implies that grisms cannot be gineering. For a description of the under-
tuned effectively. The number of spectral lying concept and other applications of
elements (and hence the spectral resolu- this technology see e.g. Wiedemann et
tion) a grism spectrograph can provide is aI., 1993. A similar process for Germa-
2This detector has been manufactured by
Leti/L1R, Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Grenoble, therefore ultimately limited by the num- nium, however, needed to be developed
France. ber of pixels of the camera detector in from scratch. This process is now avail-
3 For readers who are not entirely familiar with dispersion direction times the number of able and can be used for second gen-
grisms: a grism is a transmission grating mounted to
the back of a prism. Light, when passing the trans- grisms one can afford on the exchange eration devices for TIMMI and all other
mission grating, will be deflected according to its mechanism. upcoming projects in ESO, be it VLT or
wavelength. The prism bends the light deflected by Nevertheless, all advantages de- La Silla instrumentation.
the grating back parallel to the optical axis of the
incoming beam. In this way the device works like scribed above will remain purely hypo-
e.g. a prism of the Amici type. Inserted into a paral- thetical unless there is a way of manu- 3. First Observational Results
lel beam light for a given centre-wavelength passes facturing these devices. In spite of ma-
without deviation whereas light at other wavelengths
will leave the device tilted with respect to the optical jor efforts which started in 1991, ESO The grisms were mounted in TIMMI in
axis. has not been able to procure suitable May 1994 (Fig. 1). Special test time was

5
 From the observations of IC418 the
sensitivity of the spectroscopic mode
can be provisionally estimated. A SIN
10000.0 of ::::;10 can be expected in 1h total
observing time for the [Nell] line for
0.6x10- 14 W
0 ',. For a continuum
source a S)~,r~rc1'0 can be expected
53 8000.0 for a source of 400-800 mJy/arcsec2 (::::;
:>
tJl
4.5 mag) for 1 h total observing time.
OJ
c:
~ 6000.0 5. Conclusion and Outlook
OJ
::l The first results obtained with the
C1l long-slit spectroscopy mode of TIMMI
:>
4000.0 are extremely encouraging. There is
OJ
X
certainly a great variety of astronomi-
0.. cal programmes which will benefit from
the spectroscopy mode as it is imple-
2000.0 mented now. Usage of the mode is hence
strongly encouraged. Nevertheless, it is
also clear that a lot of improvements are
possible and desirable.
In the near future a new set of
11.5 12.0 12.5 13.0 grisms made from Germanium will be-
POSItIon come available. These devices can then
Figure 3: This is a projection of the spectrum shown in Figure 2 on the wavelength axis. As be much better antireflection coated than
the emission of [Neill at ,\ :=: 12.8 e,m is quasi monochromatic, this line shows the instrumental the present devices in TIMMI. An in-
profile. The spectrum is not yet corrected for atmospheric absorption or instrumental efficiency. crease in transmission by 30% can be
The noise on the right side of the spectrum is caused by absorption of atmospheric CO2 which expected. These gratings will then also
sets the red edge of the 10 e,m window. What looks like noise of the continuum left of the line be chosen in such a way that the en-
are most likely features created by other infrared active atmospheric components. It needs to tire 10 fJm window is covered with some
be demonstrated in the future by further processing of the data how well such structures can be overlap. In the tests it was also obvi-
reduced by observing reference stars.
ous, that the camera shows some inter-
nal radiation background. Finding ways
to reduce this background will further en-
allocated to assess the astronomical per- The grism mode was immediately hance the sensitivity of this new mode of
formance. This first test, however, was used for the observing programme in the TIMMI.
only marginally successful. The instru- following night (Infrared imaging of warm
mental profile could be measured and dust in starburst galaxies and AGNs) to
Acknowledgements
was found to correspond exactly to the record a long slit spectrum of NGC 253.
theoretical expectations. The astronom- For this observation the position angle of The support of all staff of the ESQ in-
ical tests, however, were severely af- the slit was aligned with the major axis frared group in Garching and La Silla was
fected by mechanical problems in TIMMI of the galaxy by rotating TIMMI with the essential to make this project success-
with the slit assembly. Also a major frac- Cassegrain adaptor rotator. ful. Specifically, however, these grisms
tion of observation time was lost due to would never have materialized without
maintenance activities at the telescope 4. Technical Data the delicate mechanical design made
and bad weather. by A. Silber and without G. Wiedemann
of Spectroscopy Mode
Most of the mechanical problems in who brought the idea for the manufac-
TIMMI were resolved before the next A summary of technical data of the turing process to ESQ. P. van der Werf
scheduled run of TIMMI in November spectroscopy mode is given in Table 1. provided valuable help during the astro-
1994. The grism mode was then tested in
the setup night November 11-12. When
observing stars it was found that inspite TABLE 1. Summary of Technical Data of Spectroscopy Mode
of the rather narrow slit (0.9 arcsec) typ-
ically 50-80% of the light reaches the Spectral resolution (2 pixel sampling): ;>. : :; 200
detector. This depends obviously some- Slit width (fixed): 0.9 arcsec
Slit orientation: nominally north-south (can be changed ± 90 deg)
what on the seeing which was between
Slit viewing: with TIMMI in imaging mode through slit
0.6-2 arcsec as reported by the DIMM Tracking of objects: with TV camera in f-35 adaptor either with optical
(ESQ's on-site on-line seeing detector). light from the object itself (through dichroic) or with
Figure 2 shows a long-slit spectrum of field stars
IC418 covering the range from 11.5 fJm to
the atmospheric cut-off at 13.3 fJm. From Wavelength range:
these data it will e.g. be possible to get Grism 1 8.0-9.15 e,m
the ratio of the [Nell] line at 12.8 fJm to the Grism 2 9.6-11.0 e,m (not yet operational)
Grism 3 11.5-13.3 e,m
thermal dust continuum along the slit with
very high quality. This will allow for new
The grisms operate in first order. Order sorting is done with a long-pass filter. The period of
insights into the excitation conditions of the grooves is 11.9805, 10.0551 and 8.4505 p,m. The blaze angle is approximately 23
this dusty low excitation planetary neb- degrees.
ula.

6
nomical tests. The author also appre- References G. Wiedemann, D.E. Jennings; 1993, Applied
ciates the fruitful and pleasant collab- Optics 32, 1176.
H.U. Kaufl et al. 1992, The Messenger 70, 67.
oration with the Fraunhofer Institut fUr H.U. Kaufl et al. 1994, Infrared Phys. Technol.
Festk6rpertechnologie 35,203.

With this periodically compiled collection of short notes, the NIT Team intends to keep the community
informed about changes in performance, configuration, and operation of the NTT and its subsystems.

EMMI and SUSI Receive uate the sequence of excellent images of the air conditioning system circulates.
Additional Attention which he obtained in May and to Dr. R. The slip ring was fully re-designed; the
Falomo who, as a visitor to the Science manufacture of spare parts required sig-
The NTT Team is slowly reaching Division in Garching, analysed them and nificant help from the mechanics work-
its full staff complement. On September several other datasets. shop at La Silla. At the time of the in-
19, Albert Zijlstra took up his duties as stallation, which went very smoothly, the
EMMI/SUSI instrument scientist. He will M 1 Actuators Checked new slip ring was also properly shielded
be in charge of all aspects which can be against condensation.
handled from Garching. A primary task As part of a systematic checkout of the
will be the design and testing of standard active optics system, the currents of all Instrument Rotators
calibration and reduction procedures for 78 actuators of the M1 radial support sys-
these two instruments. Besides various tem were measured and logged. A num- The rotation of the rotator on side B
other assignments, he will also answer ber of them were found to be far above (EMMI) through 360 degrees in May con-
user inquiries about EMMI and SUSI the average and, in fact, out of specifi- tinues to have the effect which had been
(please e-mail them to ntt@eso. org) cation, due to increased mechanical fric- hoped for. At telescope positions where
and he will organize the support for re- tion. These actuators were overhauled the speed of rotation of the instrument ro-
mote NTT observers. Having been in one by one in the mechanics workshop tators changes sign, the torque no longer
Garching for two years as a postdoctoral at La Silla. increases by so much that the motor
fellow, Albert is already well familiar with can hardly, or even not at all, overcome
the environment of his new job. TCS Computer Upgraded it. However, the same measure taken
on side A has not brought about any
Image Quality The computer running the Telescope perceptible improvement. Meanwhile, F.
Control System (TCS) has for much of Franza and M. Ziebell have contacted the
The dynamical range of this subject the time been working at a level of 50% Technical University in Munich for advice
is currently unusually extreme. On the or more of its capacity. In a real-time ap- where the problem has met much inter-
one hand, several observers succeeded plication this is dangerously high and has est.
in securing images with an FWHM of 0.5 on a small number of occasions substan- By removing a so-called watch dog
arcsec or even better (ct. The Messenger tially increased the response time to TCS from the interlock chain of the control sys-
No. 76, p. 21). In many of these excel- commands even in the case of relatively tem on side A (IRSPEC), the difference in
lent nights, the effective image quality ob- minor malfunctions of some components frequency between sides A and B of sud-
tained with the NTT has been slightly bet- connected to the NTT Local Area Net- den stops of the power amplifier (a prob-
ter than the seeing measured with DIMM, work. For this reason, the CPU has with lem completely independent of the one
the Differential Image Motion Monitor. the help of the HP Computer Group at La above) could be removed. The search for
On the other hand, NTT images are Silla been upgraded from an HP A900 to the origin of the remaining failures con-
still often plagued by elongations. Some an A990 model which more than doubles tinues. But their intermittent origin makes
recent extreme cases could be quickly the safety margin. this a difficult task.
identified with a hardware failure of the
guideprobe control. But some weaker Slip Ring Replaced Additional Field Tests of New
aberrations continue to show up. Using Control Software
the NTT's intrinsic image analysis capa- During the technical maintenance pe-
bilities, it could be shown that the zenith riod in August, the slip ring which is the The preparation of the new control
distance dependence of astigmatism has central link for communications, includ- system proceeds closely along the lines
increased quite significantly since the ing the time signal from the atomic clock, of the NTT Upgrade Plan. The field test
commissioning. The follow-up work now between the NTT and the outside world, of Work Component NO.3 was executed
concentrates on the lateral support of the was replaced. This action had become in October. Its objective was the con-
primary mirror (the problem might be with very critical because rapidly progressive trol of the secondary and tertiary mirror.
the lateral support itself or due to imper- corrosion had already paralysed some of With the help of the Electronics Group
fect centring of M1 in its cell). the data channels. The reason had been at La Silla an adapter board had been
We are grateful to Dr. S. Ortolani for the dripping of condensing water from developed to map the signals between
granting permission to technically eval- the pipe through which the cooling liquid the present and the future system so

7
that the changeover could be achieved terface (GUI), R. Schmutzer came for an shutdown of the telescope after the end
very quickly. The goals of the test were extended visit to Garching where a small of the observations.
achieved, and some dark time could group of astronomers in close interaction
even be used for further astronomical with him provided the user requirements.
and optical tests of the telescope. The The result offers a maximum of, partly MIDAS Observing Batches
latter confirmed that the new control sys- user configurable, functionality on a min-
The MIDAS procedures which are es-
tem also satisfies all quantitative require- imum of screen space without compro-
sential for a number of on-line opera-
ments. mising clarity. The VLT Software Group
tions (e.g. telescope and instrument fo-
The M2/M3 application software in- will probably make the code available to
VLT instrument consortia in order to in- cussing, target acquisition), have with the
cludes position servo loops similar to
spire a common look and feel of the GUI's help of C. Levin and the MIDAS Group
the control of the telescope main axis.
of VLT instruments. in Garching been included in the soft-
The experience gained during the devel-
ware configuration control scheme used
opment and the field test is becoming
also for MIDAS in general. Before ev-
very valuable for the design of the VLT IRSPEC
ALT/AZ software. In general, the NTT ex- ery new release of MIDAS, the master-
F. Gutierrez has completed his work copy of the procedures will be thoroughly
periences are receiving more and more
attention now when the detailed design tested and the results compared with ref-
to enable the automatic transfer of data
erence data.
of application programmes within the VLT files to the workstation for on-line analy-
Telescope Control Software is starting. Together with other colleagues at La
sis with the IRSPEC package of MIDAS.
After partial adaptation of the set of FITS Silla, a prioritized list with requests for
keywords, archiving of the observations enhancements of these procedures has
Increased Robustness of CCD
been submitted to the MIDAS group. A
Data Acquisition will begin (similar to what for some years
number of minor improvements are ex-
now has been the practice for EMMI and
In the operations log it was noted that pected to be implemented already in the
SUSI).
in about 1% of all CCD readouts, the first quarter of 1995.
VME node concerned would time out dur-
ing the transfer of the data file to the Check Lists for Telescope Higher Throughput Expected
control computer. Since it was suspected Operations for Remote Observers
that the reason is a bug in the OS-9 op-
erating system of the VME (which would We are trying to steadily improve the First tests have been performed with
be out of reach for ESO to correct), a reliability of the NTT by upgrading our the new roof-to-roof communication link
workaround was installed which consists operational standards. Recent examples between La Silla and Garching which has
of repeating the file transfer until it suc- are the extensive check lists which the a bandwidth of 2 Mbit/sec. Early in 1995,
ceeds. This simple solution has elimi- night assistants have compiled. In the af- this link will replace the 0.064 Mbit/s tie
nated the problem. We are grateful to A. ternoon, the night assistant uses these line which is currently used for observa-
Longinotti and P. Sinclaire for their joint lists to record all steps to be taken to tions with the NTT under remote control
efforts in this matter. prepare the telescope for the night. This from Garching. This will enormously im-
systematic check-out of various subsys- prove the throughput of the system. Es-
New Graphical User Interface tems may in some cases conflict with pecially the transfer of data files will be
for EMMI the observer's need to calibrate the in- accelerated by nearly an order of magni-
struments. Observers have the possibil- tude so that sending a 2kx2k to Garch-
The software group at La Silla is re- ity to request that the startup procedure ing will take about 1.5-2.5 minutes. How-
sponsible for developing the new control be abbreviated. However, by doing so ever, file transfer may for many applica-
software for EMMI which will be installed they also accept an increased risk of dis- tions no longer be needed since the dis-
together with all the rest of the new VLT covering a problem only after scientific play in Garching of a 1kx 1k picture kept
compatible control system for the NTT. observations have started. on the disk at the NTT will be much faster
For the design of the graphical user in- Similar procedures are followed for the still.

8
 SCIENCE WITH THE VLT

Astrophysics on Its Shortest Timescales

O. ORAVINS, Lund Observatory, Sweden

The VLT will permit enormously more sensitive searches for high-speed phenomena in astrophysics, such as
those expected from instabilities in accretion onto compact objects, or in the fine structure of photon emission. On
[sub}millisecond timescales, light curves are of little use, and measurements have to be of power spectra or other
statistical functions, which increase with the light collected to a power of 2 or more, making the gains very much
greater than for ordinary photometry or spectroscopy.

High-Speed Astrophysics mous, and a series of phenomena, rang- Advantages of observing

ing from magneto-hydrodynamic turbu- in the optical
The frontiers of astrophysics have lence to stimulated synchrotron radia-
expanded through observational break- tion might well occur. Some processes Rapid astrophysical events are gen-
throughs. The Universe has turned out to may occur over scales of only kilome- erally expected in accretion processes
be more enigmatic than even the creative ters or less, and there is no immediate near compact objects such as white
fantasy of astronomers had been able to hope for their spatial imaging. Insights dwarfs, neutron stars or presumed black
predict. It is worth recalling that many of can instead be gained through studies holes. A number of such sources have
today's 'ordinary' topics such as quasars of their small-scale instabilities, such as previously been studied in the subsec-
or stellar coronae are results of discov- hydrodynamic oscillations or magneto- ond and millisecond ranges, both in X-
eries enabled by improvements in tech- hydrodynamic flares. Phenomena which rays and in the optical (e.g. Motch et al.
nology. This mode of advance is different might be encountered on timescales of 1982; Beskin et al. 1994).
from the situation in e.g. particle physics, seconds, milli-, or even microseconds, There are quasi-periodic oscillations,
where it is often possible to make predic- include: flashes, pulsars, and other phenomena.
tions of novel phenomena, and then to For best detection and visibility, X-rays
construct experimental apparatus to ver- • Plasma instabilities and fine struc- could appear to be most attractive, since
ify some specific theory. In astronomy, ture in accretion flows onto white dwarfs they often originate in high-temperature
the discovery of quasi-periodic oscilla- and neutron stars regions quite close to the compact object.
tions in accretion disks or of millisecond • Small-scale [magneto-]hydrody- Nevertheless, the optical region may
pulsars was not the result of theoretical namic instabilities in accretion disks in practice be the best for the detailed
predictions, but rather the inescapable around compact objects study of the most rapid phenomena.
revelation once the sensitivity in the rel- • Radial oscillations in white dwarfs (~ The reason is that the number of pho-
evant parameter space had been suffi- 100-1000 ms), and non-radial ones in tons that can be detected per second
ciently enhanced. In the past, one ma- neutron stars (:s 100 ps) (and especially per millisecond!) is of-
jor thrust in expanding the parameter en- • Optical emission from millisecond ten much greater from the optical parts of
velope of astrophysics was the addition pulsars (:s 10 ms) the sources (as observed with large tele-
of new wavelength regions, in particular • Fine structure in the emission ('pho- scopes), than that from their X-ray parts,
through space missions. Now, that most ton showers') from pulsars and other observed with current space instruments.
regions are accessible, the thrusts are compact objects Foreseeable satellites will not be able to
moving toward other domains, such as • Photo-hydrodynamic turbulence collect more than typically a thousand X-
higher spatial and temporal resolution. ('photon bubbles') in extremely luminous ray photons per second, even from quite
This article is concerned with the latter stars bright objects (Bradt et al. 1990). While
of these. • Stimulated emission from magnetic this will be adequate to explore many ex-
High-speed astrophysics, entering the objects ('cosmic free-electron laser') citing phenomena, it is probably not ade-
previously unexplored domains of milli-, • Non-equilibrium photon statistics quate in searches for very rapid fluctua-
micro-, and nanosecond variability, has (non-Bose-Einstein distributions) in tions.
the goal to discover and explore the pos- sources far from thermodynamic equilib- In contrast, optical light curves of some
sible very rapid variability in astronomi- rium. accretion sources showing periodicity on
cal objects. One aim will be to examine the scale of seconds can be quite promi-
radiation from accretion systems around nent already when recorded with tele-
compact objects in the Galaxy where, Parameter Domains of scopes in the 1.5-m class (Larsson 1985;
in some cases, variability is already Astrophysics Imamura et al. 1990). Using an 8-metre
known to exist on timescales down to telescope, and an instrumental efficiency
milliseconds. Highly energetic events oc- The whole science of astronomy can improved by a factor 3, implies some 100
cur in such gas flows onto white dwarfs, be subdivided into parameter domains times more photons collected. Detailed
neutron stars or presumed black holes. with respect to electromagnetic wave- light curves could then be seen if their
The environments of such objects are length, and the timescale of study. Clas- periodicity was merely tens of millisec-
promising laboratories to search for very sical astronomy, for example, was largely onds (with count rates on the order of a
rapid phenomena: the geometrical ex- confined to wavelengths accessible from million photons per second).
tent can be very small, the energy den- the ground, and timescales between per- Another advantage of the optical is the
sity very high, the magnetic fields enor- haps 0.1 seconds and 10 years. feasibility to ultimately detect quantum

9
 Log electromagnetic frequency [Hz] frared. While this does not hinder studies
of rapid variability as such, it does pre-
22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8
clude full studies of quantum effects in
radiation.
20
Accretion Physics for High-Speed
15 Studies

What novel phenomena can we ex-

...-, 10
(fJ
pect to detect in accretion processes?
'--J
An artist's vision, combining established

-Q)

co
<.>
(fJ
Q)
5

0
knowledge with predicted phenomena
unfolds in the painting of Figure 3. In
a close binary system, matter is es-
caping from the dynamic and unstable
....S
...., outer atmosphere of an evolved red gi-
-5
b.lJ ant and impinging into an accretion disk
0
....:l surrounding a black hole. (For a gen-
-10
eral review of phenomena in such sys-
tems, see e.g. Livia, 1994.) Here, the ac-
-15 cretion flow is neither smooth, nor reg-
ular. It is turbulent, and eddies can be
-20 seen on many different scales (Meglicki
et al. 1993). The disk is asymmetric (per-
haps reflecting the time history of mat-
-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 o 2
ter flows from the giant star; Kaitchuck et
Log electromagnetic wavelength [m] al. 1994; Lanzafame et al. 1993; Marsh
et al. 1994; Whitehurst 1994); the accre-
Figure 1: Parameter domains of astrophysics, subdividing electromagnetic radiation with respect
tion flow is spiral shocked (Heemskerk
to timescale of study, and the wavelength. This diagram (covering some 500 square decades in
parameter space) encompasses all of astrophysics, save neutrino, gravitational, cosmic-ray, and
1994) and warped perpendicular to its
in-situ studies. All regions are not yet accessible to observation, in particular due to insufficient main plane (perhaps due to tidal torques
observable photon fluxes for high-energy radiation. The optical high-speed domain is marked or differential precession; lping & Pet-
in pink. terson 1990). A well-collimated jet is
ejected from the central portions, but af-
ter some distance it becomes unstable
phenomena. At present, these seem un- to observe in radio (e.g. the bunching of (due to its internal helical magnetic field?)
reachable for X-rays, due to their much photons appears as 'wave noise'), but a and disintegrates after suffering a super-
higher electromagnetic frequencies (Fig- limit is set by the difficulties of photon sonic collision with the surrounding cir-
ure 1). Some quantum effects are easier counting at wavelengths beyond the in- cumstellar medium. At certain distances
from the centre, hydrodynamic instabil-
Log frequency [Hz] ities appear as various types of waves
(Chen & Taam 1992; Honma et al. 1992;
16 15 14 13 Wallinder 1991), possibly seen by a dis-
tant observer as quasi-periodic oscilla-
o o - White dwarf accretion
tions. The angular momentum of some
- Quasi-periodic oscillations of the inflowing matter conspires with
- Terrestrial atmosphere moving hydrodynamic shocks to form a
- Millisecond pulsars? three-dimensional structure above and
around the disk (Hawley & Smarr 1986).
- Neutron star oscillations?
Some of these 'walls' are very thin, their
- MHD instabilities in accretion? thickness perhaps reflecting electric cur-
- Stimulated emission? rent sheets. Differential gas motions in-
- Photon statistics? side and around the accretion disk feed
Intensity interferometry
a dynamo which generates a chaotic
magnetic field on many different spatial
- Quantum optics
scales (Stone & Norman 1994; Torkels-
~ -10 -10 - ??? son & Brandenburg 1994), whose en-
....:l ergy is released in short and energetic
flares of magnetic reconnection, accom-
panied by local mass ejections and high-
energy radiation. Some magnetic areas
are cooler than their local surroundings
-15 ('spots'; Bao 1992;), while others dissi-
pate with magnetic heating and appear
-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 hotter (Horne & Saar 1991). Such mag-
Log wavelength [m] netic processes also contribute to sus-
taining a hot chromosphere and corona
Figure 2: A,subset of Figure 1, showing a region around the optical, with expected timescales surrounding the disk (Mineshige & Wood
for various astrophysical processes marked. 1990). At the very centre, a glimpse of

10
11
processes very near the black hole can 'intensity'. When instead treating radia- tal level, i.e. not superficial specifications
be seen: the appearance is asymmet- tion as a three-dimensional photon gas, such as field-of-view or spectral resolu-
ric because the flux (and wavelength) other effects also become significant, tion, but rather their workings concerning
of light is altered by both the gravita- e.g. higher-order coherence and the tem- the physical observables accessed.
tional field and by the Doppler effect poral correlation between photons. The
in the rotating gas (the side approach- best known non-classical property of light One-photon experiments
ing the observer is brighter; Fukue & is the bunching of photons, first mea-
Yokoyama 1988). Further, relativistic ray- sured by Hanbury Brown and Twiss in We describe light as an electromag-
bending permits us to view also the 'back' those experiments that led to the astro- netic wave of one linear polarization
side of the central region. All this is ac- nomical intensity interferometer, used to component whose electric field E con-
companied by infalling planetisimals and measure stellar sizes (Hanbury Brown tains terms of the type exp(-iwt) for an-
crashing comets, possibly remnants of 1974). Different physical processes in the gular frequencies w. All classical opti-
a former planetary system (Pineault & generation of light may cause quantum- cal instruments measure properties of
Landry 1994), local hydromagnetic in- statistical differences (different amounts light that can be deduced from the first-
stabilities seen as vortices in the gas of photon bunching in time) between light order correlation function of light, G(I),
streams ('tornados'; Abramowicz et a/. with otherwise identical spectrum, polar- for two coordinates in space r and time
1992), gas ejections collimated by local ization, intensity, etc., and studies of such t (Glauber, 1970). The different classes
magnetic fields, and many other small- non-classical properties of light are ac- are collected in Figure 4, where < >
scale instability phenomena (Mineshige tively pursued in laboratory optics. denotes time average, and * complex
& Kusunose 1993). On larger scales, the Such quantum correlation effects are conjugate. For example, a bolometer
whole disk is undergoing acoustic oscil- fully developed over timescales equal to measures <E*(O,O) E(O,O», yielding the
lations (Nowak & Wagoner 1992). the inverse bandwidth of light. For ex- classical field intensity irrespective of the
How much could be reality and what is ample, the use of a 1 nm bandpass op- spectrum or geometry of the source (we
fantasy? Of course, nobody knows ex- tical filter gives a frequency bandwidth define the coordinates with the observer
actly what an accretion disk looks like of C':' 10 12 Hz, and the effects are then initially at the origin). For the case rl =
(and, arguably, none has ever been di- fully developed on timescales of C':' 10- 12 r2 but tl i=- t2, G(I) becomes the auto-
rectly observed). However, all the phe- seconds. Instrumentation with continu- correlation function with respect to time,
nomena depicted in Figure 3 were in- ous data processing facilities of such res- <E*(O,O) E(O,t», whose Fourier trans-
spired by predictions in the literature. olutions is not yet available, but it is pos- form yields the power density as func-
Some of the processes hinted at oc- sible to detect these effects, albeit with tion of electromagnetic frequency. That
cur over very small dimensions, and a decreased amplitude, also over more is the spectrum of light which is mea-
it will not be possible to image them manageable nanosecond intervals. sured by spectrometers. The function
with any presently foreseen interferom- is explicitly sampled by Fourier trans-
eter (although some features could be Beyond Imaging, Photometry and form spectrometers while e.g. gratings
made visible through Doppler imaging Spectroscopy 'perform' the transform to the spectrum
or similar techniques). In order to learn through diffractive interference. For the
more, we are driven toward high time Conventional optical instruments, like case rl i=- r2 but tl = t2 we instead
resolution. Even if there is no [immedi- photometers, spectrometers, polarime- have the spatial autocorrelation function
ate] hope for the spatial imaging, signa- ters or interferometers, are capable of <E*(O,O) E(r,O», which is measured by
tures of many events may be observable measuring properties of light such as its imaging telescopes and [phase] interfer-
in the time domain, on timescales of sec- intensity, spectrum, polarization or co- ometers, yielding the angular distribution
onds, milli-, or even microseconds. A res- herence. However, such properties are of the source power density. The need for
olution of 1 ps translates to a light travel generally insufficient to determine the accurate timekeeping at both sites rland
distance (and thus 'resolution' along the physical conditions under which light has r2 originates from the requirement tl = t2.
line of sight) of 300 metres, irrespective been created. Thus it is not possible, In the absence of absolute flux calibra-
of distance to the source. not even in principle, to distinguish be- tions, G(1) is usually normalized to the
tween e.g. spontaneously emitted light first-order coherence g(1).
How Rapid A Variability reaching the observer directly from the
Can Be Detected? source; similar light that has undergone Two- and multi-photon properties
scattering on its way to the observer; or of light
Increasing the temporal resolution to
light predominantly created through stim-
microseconds, one should encounter
ulated emission, provided these types of Thus, classical measurements do not
successively more rapid events, on
light have the same intensity, polariza- distinguish light sources with identical
timescales such as those expected for
tion and coherence as function of wave- G(I). All such measurements can be as-
magnetic instabilities in accretion sys-
length. The deduction of the processes cribed to quantities of type E*E, corre-
tems, or for non-radial oscillations in neu-
of light emission is therefore made indi- sponding to intensity I, which in the quan-
tron stars. However, there do not yet ap-
rectly via theoretical models. Yet, such tum limit means observations of individ-
pear to exist any predicted macroscopic
types of light could have physical differ- ual photons or of statistical one-photon
processes in the nanosecond domain.
ences regarding collective multi-photon properties. Possible multi-photon phe-
Such resolutions, however, lead into the
properties in the photon gas. Such prop- nomena in the photon stream reaching
microscopic realm of quantum optics,
erties are known for light from laboratory the observer are not identified.
and the quantum-mechanical statistics of
sources, and might ultimately become The description of collective multi-
photon counts. To understand what infor-
experimentally measurable also for as- photon phenomena in a photon gas in
mation they carry, we have to examine
tronomical ones. general requires a quantum-mechanical
the physical properties of light.
To understand the 'parameter do- treatment since photons have integer
mains' in 'knowledge space' that are ac- spin (S = 1), and therefore constitute a
Nanoseconds and quantum optics
cessed by e.g. photometers or spec- boson fluid with properties different from
Classical physics merges all radiation trometers, we need to understand their a fluid of classical distinguishable par-
of a certain wavelength into the quantity working principles on a very fundamen- ticles. The first treatment of the quan-

12
,-----
.
. -
O~E-PHOTON EXPE-~~~ENTS
- -- ---- _. . _--_.-
-,
1:st order correlation function: 2:nd order correlation function:
(1) * (2)
G [r 1 ,t!; r 2 ,t 2 ] = < E (r 1 ,t 1 ) E(r 2 ,t 2 ) > G [r 1 ,t 1 ; r 2 ,t 2 ] = < I(r 1 ,t 1 ) I(r 2 ,t 2 ) >

Special case: r 1 = r 2' t l = t 2 Special case: r 1 = r 2' t l = t 2

< E*(O,O) E(O,O) > - BOLOMETER < 1(0,0) 1(0,0) > - "QUANTUM SPECTROMETER"

Special case: r 1 cf r 2' t 1 = t 2 Special case: r 1 cf r 2' t 1 = t 2

l
E~*(O'O) E(r,O) > - [PHASE] INTERFEROMETER < 1(0,0) I(r,O) > - INTENSITY INTERFEROMETER

Special case: r! = r 2' t! cf t 2 Special case: r 1 = r 2' t l cf t 2

< E*(O,O) E(O,t) > - SPECTROMETER < 1(0,0) I(O,t) > - CORRELATION SPECTROMETER

------- -~~===~
Figure 4: Fundamental quantities measured in one-photon experi- Figure 5: Fundamental quantities measured in two-photon experi-
ments. All such measurements can be ascribed to quantities of type ments. All such measurements can be ascribed to quantities of type
E*E, corresponding to intensity I, which in the quantum limit Ix I, i.e. intensity multiplied by itself, which in the quantum limit means
means observations of individual photons or of statistical one-photon observations of pairs of photons or of statistical two-photon properties.
properties. To this category belong all direct and interferometric im- The intensity interferometer was the first astronomical instrument in
agers, spectrometers, and photometers, i.e. all ordinary instruments this category.
used in astronomy. Time average is denoted by < > while * marks
complex conjugate.

Figure 6: Properties intensity-correlation spectrometer, which

MULTI - PHOTON PROPERTIES of light, measurable measures <1(0,0) I(O,t», determining
in multi-photon ex- the spectral width of e.g. scattered laser
Chaotic light: periments. Such mea- light.
n n surements can be as-
< I >=n!<I> In thermodynamic equilibrium, the
cribed to quantities
of type In, i.e. inten- [chaotic] distribution of photons corre-
Stable wave: sity multiplied n times sponds to the value g(2) = 2 for first-
by itself, which in the order coherent (g(1) = 1) light. Such
quantum limit means photons follow a Bose-Einstein distribu-
observations of tion, analogous to a Maxwellian one for
Chaotic light scattered by Gaussian medium: groups of n photons classical particles. However, away from
or of statistical n-pho- equilibrium, photons may deviate from
< In> = (n!) 2 < I > n
ton properties. The Bose-Einstein distributions Uust as clas-
information contained
sical particles can be non-Maxwellian).
Anti-bunched light: in such higher-order
photon correlations
For example, light created by stimulated
<In>=O [n>1] emission in the limiting case of a sta-
may include thermo-
dynamic information ble wave without any intensity fluctua-
- - of how the light was tions has g(2) = 1, corresponding to anal-
created or how it has been redistributed (scattered) since its creation. Although such prob- ogous states in other boson fluids, e.g.
lems are studied in theoretical astrophysics, they are not yet accessible to direct observational superfluidity in liquid helium. Chaotic light
tests. scattered against a Gaussian frequency-
redistributing medium has g(2) = 4.
In the laboratory, one can observe how
the physical nature of the photon gas
tum theory of coherence in a photon G(2) is often normalized to the second- gradually changes from chaotic (g(2) =
gas was by Glauber (1963a, 1963b), al- order coherence, g(2) . Although its strict 2) to ordered (g(2) = 1) when a laser
though some properties were inferred definition involves quantum-mechanical is 'turned on' and the emission gradu-
earlier from classical treatments, no- operators, a simplified expression can ally changes from spontaneous to stim-
tably the bunching of photons in chaotic be given in terms of intensities: g(2) = ulated. Measuring g(2) and knowing the
(thermal) light, first observed by Han- <I(rl,td l(r2,t2» / <1(rl,td><I(r2,t2»' laser parameters involved, it is possible
bury Brown and Twiss. An arbitrary state If the distribution of photons is chaotic, to deduce the atomic energy-level pop-
of light can be specified with a series i.e. the photon gas is in a maximum ulations, which is an example of an as-
of coherence functions essentially de- entropy state, the second-order coher- trophysically important parameter ('non-
scribing one-, two-, three-, etc. -photon- ence can be deduced as g(2) = [g(1)]2 LTE departure coefficient') which can-
correlations. A simplified expression for + 1 (e.g. Loudon 1983). This property not be directly observed with classical
the second-order correlation function is can be used to determine Ig(1) I from measurements of one-photon properties.
given in Figure 5. It describes the correla- measurements of g(2). In the intensity Just as it is not possible to tell whether
tion of intensity between two coordinates interferometer this is made for rl :/= r2 one individual helium atom is super-
in space and time. Since a detection of a but tl = t2 : < 1(0,0) l(r,O», thus de- fluid or not, it is not possible to deter-
photon (measurement of I) enters twice, ducing angular sizes of stars, reminis- mine whether one individual photon is
G(2) describes two-photon properties of cent of a classical interferometer. For due to spontaneous or stimulated emis-
light. rl = r2 but tl :/= t2 we instead have an sion: both cases require studies of statis-

13
tical properties of the respective boson spontaneously emitted photon stimulate of light would be non-trivial. In gen-
fluid. others, so that the path where the pho- eral, photon statistics for the radiation
For a first-order coherent source with ton train has passed becomes temporar- from any kind of non-thermal source
g(2) f 2, neither an intensity interfer- ily deexcited and remains so for per- could convey something about the pro-
ometer nor an intensity-correlation spec- haps a microsecond until collisions and cesses where the radiation was liber-
trometer will yield correct results. E.G. a other effects have restored the balance? ated. For example, the presence of pho-
point source emitting a monochromatic Does then light in a spectral line per- ton 'bubbles' in photohydrodynamic tur-
stable wave whose g(2) = 1 everywhere, haps consist of short photon showers bulence in very hot stars has been sug-
would appear to be spatially resolved by with one spontaneously emitted photon gested. The bubbles would be filled with
an intensity interferometer at any spatial leading a trail of others emitted by stim- light and the photon-gas pressure in-
baseline and spectrally resolved by an ulated emission? Such [partial] 'laser ac- side would balance the surrounding gas
intensity-correlation spectrometer at any tion' has been predicted in mass-losing but due to buoyancy, the bubbles would
timelag, and hence give the false impres- high-temperature stars, where the rapidly rise through the stellar surface, giving
sion of an arbitrarily large source emit- recombining plasma in the stellar enve- off photon bursts (Prendergast & Spiegel
ting white light. This example demon- .Iope can act as an amplifying medium 1973; Spiegel 1976). Obviously, the list of
strates that additional measurements are (Lavrinovich & Letokhov 1974; Varshni potential astrophysical targets could be
required to fully extract the information & Lam 1976; Varshni & Nasser 1986). made longer.
content of light. Analogous effects could exist in accre-
Many different quantum states of op- tion disks (Fang 1981). In the infrared, Interpreting observed photon
tical fields exist, not only those men- there are several cases where laser ac- statistics
tioned above (which can be given clas- tion is predicted for specific atomic lines
sical analogs) but also e.g. photon anti- (Ferland 1993; Greenhouse et al. 1993; The theoretical problem of light scat-
bunching which with g(2) = 0 is a purely Peng & Pradhan 1994). tering in a [macroscopic] turbulent
quantum-mechanical state. This implies Somewhat analogous situations (cor- medium is reasonably well studied. In
that neighbouring photons avoid one an- responding to a laser below threshold) particular, the equations of transfer for
other in space and time. While such have been studied in the laboratory. The 2
1 and higher-order moments of intensity
properties are normal for fermions (e.g. radiation structure from 'free' clouds (i.e. have been formulated and solved (e.g.
electrons), which obey the Pauli exclu- outside any laser resonance cavity) of Uscinski 1977). A result that is familiar
sion principle, ensembles of bosons (e.g. excited gas with population inversion can to many people implies that stars twinkle
photons) show such properties only in be analysed. One natural mode of radia- more with [moderately] increasing atmo-
special situations. An antibunching ten- tive deexcitation indeed appears to be spheric turbulence. The value of I, i.e. the
dency implies that the detection of a the emission of 'photon showers' trig- total number of photons transmitted may
photon at a given time is followed by gered by spontaneously emitted ones well be constant, but 12 increases with
a decreased probability to detect an- which are stimulating others along their greater fluctuations in the medium. The
other immediately afterward. Experimen- flight vectors out from the volume. quantum problem of scattering of light
tally, this is seen through sub-Poisson ian In principle, quantum statistics of pho- against atoms is somewhat related, ex-
statistics, i.e. narrower distributions of tons might permit to determine whether cept that the timescales involved are now
recorded photon counts than would be e.g. the Doppler broadening of a spec- those of the coherence times of light.
expected in a 'random' situation. Since tral line has been caused by motions However, theoretical treatments of as-
the intensity of light is now a function of those atoms that emitted the photons trophysical radiative transfer have so far
whose average square (<1 2 » is smaller or by those intervening atoms that have almost exclusively concentrated on the
than the square of its average «1>2), scattered the already existing photons. first-order quantities of intensity, spec-
it cannot be represented through classi- Thus, for such scattered light, its degree trum and polarization, and not on the
cal mathematics: this requires a quantum of partial redistribution in frequency might transfer of f and higher-order terms.
description. be directly measurable. There are some exceptions, however,
For an introduction to the theory Although the existence in principle of like the analytical solution of the higher-
of such quantum optical phenomena, such effects may be clear, their prac- order moment equation relevant for radio
see e.g. Loudon (1980; 1983), Meystre tical observability is not yet known. At scintillations in the interstellar medium
& Sargent (1990), or Walls & Mil- first sight, it might even appear that light (Lee & Jokipii 1975; Lerche 1979a;
burn (1994). Experimental procedures from a star should be nearly chaotic be- 1979b) and attempts to formulate the
for studying photon statistics are de- cause of the very large number of in- quantum mechanical description of the
scribed by Saleh (1978). dependent radiation sources in the stel- transfer of radiation, including non-
lar atmosphere, which would randomize Markovian effects (i.e. such referring to
Astronomical Quantum Optics the photon statistics. However, since the more than one photon at a time) in a
time constants involved in the mainte- photon gas (Machacek 1978; 1979), the
One can envision applications of nance of atomic energy level overpopu- transfer equation for the density matrix
nanosecond resolution optical observa- lations (e.g. by collisions) may be longer of phase space cell occupation num-
tions to give insight in the physical pro- than those of their depopulation by stimu- ber states (Sapar 1978; Ojaste & Sapar
cesses of radiative deexcitation of astro- lated emission (speed of light), there may 1979), or the introduction of concepts
physical plasmas, fields of study which exist, in a given solid angle, only a limited from non-linear optics (Wu 1993).
presently are the almost exclusive realm number of radiation modes reaching the Still, there do not yet appear to ex-
of theoreticians. observer in a given time interval (each ist any theoretical predictions for specific
microsecond, say) and the resulting pho- astronomical sources of any spectral line
Physics of emission processes ton statistics might well be non-chaotic. profiles of higher-order than one (i.e. or-
Proposed mechanisms for pulsar emis- dinary intensity versus wavelength). Until
What is the physical nature of light sion include stimulated synchrotron and the availability of such theoretical predic-
emitted from a plasma with departures curvature radiation ('free-electron laser') tions (of e.g. the second-order coherence
from thermodynamic equilibrium of the with suggested timescales of nanosec- versus wavelength), this work will con-
atomic energy-level populations? Will a onds, over which the quantum statistics tinue to have an exploratory character.

14
00 we understand what we are • Handling huge amounts of data: terial, we are facing the need for a high
doing? The highest time resolutions lead to data quantum efficiency extending into the [in-
rates of perhaps megabytes per second. fra]red. Such challenges are now stimu-
When entering new domains of physi- To make the analysis manageable, there lating the gradual emergence of a new
cal measurement, not only the optics and is a need for real-time data reduction to post-CCD generation of detectors for op-
electronics of the experiment, but also statistical functions only. tical astronomy: combining imaging at
the fundamental physics of the quantum- • For faint sources, one wants to study high quantum efficiency, photon count-
mechanical interaction between the mea- variability also on timescales shorter ing with nanosecond resolution into the
suring instrument and the photon gas than typical intervals between succes- infrared, and even intrinsic spectroscopic
to be studied, must be adequately un- sive photons. While not possible with resolution.
derstood. One example will illustrate the conventional light-curves, it is enabled
problem. Although in common speech through a statistical analysis of photon
Photon-counting avalanche diodes
the opposite is often uttered, there actu- arrival times, testing for deviations from
ally does not appear to exist any known randomness. The quantum efficiency for a sili-
method of directly detecting photons. • The terrestrial atmosphere causes con detector, compared to photocathode
All 'photon-detectors' instead give some rapid fluctuations of the source intensity, ones, can be several times greater, and
electrical signal of photo-electrons as the and a segregation of astrophysical fluc- may extend into the far red to about 1 pm.
output to the observer. It is a sobering tuations requires a correspondingly ac- During recent years, the development
thought that quantum statistical proper- curate measurement and correction for of silicon avalanche photodiodes has
ties to be measured, e.g. the bunching atmospheric effects. reached a point, where they can now
of several photons in the same quan- Previous work by other groups illus- be used for photon counting (Brown et
tum state, is a property that can not even trates that meeting all such (and other) al. 1990; Dautet et al. 1993; Nightingale
in principle be possessed by these elec- requirements is non-trivial. The pio- 1991; Sun & Davidson 1992; Szecesnyi-
trons. Since these have quantum spin = neering MANIA experiment at the North- Nagy 1993). Absolute quantum efficien-
;}, they are fermions and obey the Pauli ern Caucasus 6-metre telescope (re- cies in single-photon detection up to 76%
exclusion principle, which prohibits two cently used also in Argentina; Shvarts- (at ,\ 700 nm) have been experimen-
or more particles to occupy the same man 1977; Beskin et al. 1982; 1994), tally demonstrated (Kwiat et al. 1994).
quantum state. has limitations in the maximum photon Some astronomical groups (including
Even the optics inside an instrument count rates that can be processed. Net- ourselves) have now acquired such de-
may fundamentally affect the signal to works of telescopes used in searches for tectors, at least for the purpose of labo-
be measured. For example, the reader stellar oscillations, have been limited by ratory evaluation. Besides photon count-
might want to ponder what are the effects atmospheric intensity scintillation. Instru- ing at impressive efficiencies, avalanche
of a common beamsplitter, which makes ments in space avoid the terrestrial atmo- diodes however also bring a number of
a 50-50% split of the intensity of light. sphere: the High Speed Photometer on new and undesired (and partly unknown)
What will become of the statistical distri- the Hubble Space Telescope was a major properties. One phenomenon not seen in
butions of photons after the photon gas effort (Bless 1982), but only limited quan- photocathode detectors is that the elec-
has been cleaved by this beamsplitter? tities of data could be stored onboard. tronic avalanche during the photon de-
(For an introduction to the theory and ex- tection temporarily disturbs the semicon-
periment on such issues, see e.g. Aspect The post-Ceo era of optical ductor and causes light to be emitted
& Grangier 1991.) from the detector surface. The dark count
detectors
can be bistable in the sense of sudden
Instrumentation for High-Speed CCD's and similar silicon-based imag- jumps between discrete levels, appar-
Astrophysics ing detectors now dominate optical as- ently due to phenomena at impurity sites
tronomy, thanks to their high quantum inside the diode. Awkward problems are
A number of criteria can be defined efficiency and ease of use. However, caused by their very small physical di-
for optimizing an observing instrument in such detectors are not really optimal mensions. While the light-sensitive area
high-speed astrophysics, and there have for measuring rapid variability, due to in photomultipliers typically extends over
been efforts by different groups toward their relatively long read-out times. Al- several mm, the usable area of present
this end. though devices and methods for more photon-counting diodes is typically no
We have designed one such unit at rapid CCD-frame readout (milliseconds) more than some 1% that of a normal pho-
Lund Observatory, named QVANTOSfor are being developed, there seem to be tomultiplier. For use on a large telescope,
'Quantum-Optical Spectrometer. Its first fundamental trade-offs between speed this circumstance makes the optical and
version was used on La Palma to test and noise. For timing individual photons mechanical designs quite challenging.
instrumentation and observation meth- on sub millisecond scales, one has hith- Developments of larger-area ava-
ods, and to explore what challenges in erto been limited to photocathode de- lanche diodes are being pursued in in-
understanding the terrestrial atmosphere tectors such as photomultipliers or mi- dustry, and prototypes of significantly
that must be met before astrophysical crochannel plates. larger size have been tested (e.g.
variability on short timescales can be Such photocathode detectors, how- Woodard et al. 1994). Some other prob-
convincingly demonstrated to exist. The ever, have a limit in their achievable lems related to the active quenching
main design criteria for the QVANTOS quantum efficiency, and in its extension of the avalanches (giving shorter dead-
instrument and a description of its per- toward the infrared. As stressed further times and thus permitting higher count
formance are in Dravins et al. (1994), below, the signal-to-noise ratio in mea- rates) have apparently been solved, but
while examples of data recorded with it sured statistics of intensity fluctuations there still remain some non-uniformities
appear below. Basically, its key compo- increases rapidly not only with telescope in sensitivity across the detector area,
nents are rapid photon-counting detec- size but equally with increased detec- and the dark signal increases for larger
tors and very fast digital signal proces- tor efficiency. Since future observational detectors. Solutions to these and other
sors for real-time computation of various needs will include relatively faint accre- problems are actively being sought
statistical functions of the photon arrival tion sources in the Galaxy, some of which in the industry. Also, photon-counting
times. The design issues included: may be reddened by circumstellar ma- with germanium avalanche diodes has

15
 izations (where the emission may come tion lines is due to wavelength shifts en-
from different magnetic regions). Thus, abled by local electrical potentials. When
to extract all information, photon arrival a molecule absorbs a photon, it under-
times and positions should be recorded goes a photo-reaction which makes the
with a high spectroscopic and polarimet- molecule insensitive to light in that partic-
ric resolution. Especially for extended ular wavelength band, analogous to the
astronomical sources, such studies are functioning of dyes in a color film. The
hampered by the two-dimensional na- spectral information is retrieved using a
ture of common photon detectors. Even scanning dye laser: tests on the solar
if spectrometers were efficient, most light spectrum confirm a performance compa-
would be lost because the instrument rable to the highest resolution spectrom-
must scan in the spatial or spectral do- eters used in astronomy. Time resolution,
main. Here, energy-resolving detectors however, is as yet lacking in this concept.
are needed, which in addition to spa- These examples of detector develop-
tial and temporal data also measure the ments for the post-CCO era in optical
Figure 7: An avalanche photodiode array, ex- photon wavelength. Such detectors are astronomy illustrate both the new pos-
ample of an optical detector for the post-CCO widely used in X-ray astronomy, and de- sibilities that may come, and the many
era. This class of detectors has the poten- velopments are in progress to apply re- challenges that yet remain. Future detec-
tial for quantum efficiency approaching unity lated techniques also in the optical and tor gains will add to the telescope ones,
(and extending into the infrared), while count- infrared. making a VLT with future detectors enor-
ing individual photons at nanosecond resolu- One line of development concerns mously more powerful than with its first-
tion (Madden 1993). photon counting using superconducting generation instruments.
tunnel junctions (Perryman et al. 1992;
1993; 1994). The principle is that a pho- The Role of the VLT
ton impinging on the detector generates
charge carriers within it, and these are At very high time resolution, data rates
collected by nearby elements in a junc- are very high, and classical light curves
been demonstrated, extending sensitiv- tion array. The energy required to create are of little use. Measurements thus have
ities further into the infrared (Lacaita et a charge carrier within a superconduc- to be of autocorrelations, power spectra,
al. 1994; Owens et al. 1994). tor is some three orders of magnitude or other statistical properties of the ar-
In another development with silicon less than in a semiconductor such as riving photon stream. All such statistical
devices, avalanche photodiode arrays silicon. It is of order milli-eV, and thus functions depend on a power of the av-
have recently been developed (Fig. 7), an optical photon (of a few eV energy) erage intensity that is higher than one.
stimulated by non-astronomy needs such creates a 'cloud' with perhaps 100-1000 For example, an autocorrelation (which
as detectors for ladar (laser radar), of charge carriers. Even if not all are is obtained by multiplying the intensity
recording laser-pulse illuminated scenes, detected, the impact of the optical pho- signal by itself, shifted by a time lag)
where the distance to objects imaged in ton is recorded with an efficiency ap- is proportional to the square of the in-
the field is determined by timing photon proaching unity (analogous to X-ray de- tensity. Due to this dependence, very
arrivals within nanoseconds. Although tectors, where an energetic photon liber- large telescopes are much more sensi-
such devices do not yet appear to be ates many electrons). The timing of the tive for the detection of rapid variability
available in photon-counting mode, a arrival of this 'cloud' to the nearest ele- than ordinary-sized ones.
conceivable future photon-counting 4096 ments of the junction array permits both A search for e.g. magneto-hydrody-
x 4096 photodiode array with, say, a 1 positional encoding and time resolution. namic instabilities in accretion disks
MHz photon count rate per pixel could Pulse counting gives the number of liber- around supposed black holes, using au-
generate more than 107 Mb (= 10 Ter- ated charge carriers, and thus the energy tocorrelation techniques, will benefit a
abytes) per second, or 10 12 Mb (= 1 Ex- of the absorbed photon, i.e. its wave- factor (8.2/3.6)4 '::' 27 if using one 8.2-
abyte) during a 3-night observing run. length. This concept promises large-area metre telescope instead of a 3.6-m one,
The data handling issues will become detectors of very high sensitivity, photon- rather than the ratio (8.2/3.6)2 '::' 5 that
interesting, but only with such detectors counting at high time resolution, com- is valid for the intensity. For other mea-
could one begin to really exploit the po- bined with a moderate wavelength res- sures, e.g. those of the fourth-order mo-
tential of the VLT for high-speed applica- olution (AI.6"A '::' 30). ments of the photon distribution, the sig-
tions. Even so, they would be far from Another line of development, permit- nal will increase as the fourth power of
ultimate, since there is still no intrinsic ting extremely high spectral resolution in the intensity, making a full Very Large
energy nor polarization resolution, and in the detector (AI.6"A ;::: 500,000), exploits Telescope with four 8-metre units some
order to separate different wavelengths, certain organic molecules, cryogenically 185,000 times more sensitive than a 3.6
spectrometers or filters would still have cooled. The method involves a persis- m one (implying that one night of observ-
to be used, with all their known inefficien- tent spectral hole-burning in a dye-doped ing on the full VLT gives the same signal
cies in light transmission. polymer film, a technique otherwise be- as 500 years of integration with a 3.6-m!
ing developed for optical data storage; (Fig. 8).
Spectrally resolving detectors Keller et al. (1994a; 1994b). These large numbers may appear un-
An organic molecule such as chlo- usual when compared to the more mod-
Astrophysical variability may be dif- rin is used in a film cooled by liquid est gains expected for classical instru-
ferent in different wavelength regions helium. The natural line width of chlo- ments, and initially perhaps even diffi-
(where different opacities enable one to rin at this temperature is about 0.2 pm cult to believe. Such numbers are, how-
see differently deep into accretion flows); (AI.6"A '::' 310 6 ). A superposition of such ever, well understood among workers in
inside and outside a spectral line (where very narrow but overlapping absorption non-linear optics. The measured < 11 > is
the radiative non-equilibrium and deexci- lines forms a broad and smooth absorp- proportional to the conditional probabil-
tation may be different from that in the tion band, some 10 nm wide. This wave- ity that four photons are recorded within
continuum); or even in different polar- length spread of the individual absorp- a certain time interval. < 14 > itself is,

16
 (red) stars, not even the brightest ones
(Hanbury Brown 1974). The practical ob-
Telescope Intensity Second-order Fourth-order servability limit for quantum phenomena
diameter intensity correlation photon statistics
is set not by the apparent brightness of
<I> <I2> < 14 > the source (measured as photons arriv-
ing per unit time), but more by the num-
3.6 ill 1 1 1 ber of photons per [spatial and temporal]
coherence volume.
An ideal telescope may re-create, in its
focal volume, the same photon density

(I 8.2 ill

4 * 8.2 ill
5

21
27

430
720

185,000
as in the source (but no more, due to the
laws of thermodynamics). Thus a solar
telescope may achieve a photon density
corresponding to a '::' 5800 K blackbody:
the solar surface temperature, but no hot-
ter. An ideal telescope observing Sirius,
Figure 8: Comparisons between the observed signal of source intensity (I), its square and fourth however, could reach its surface temper-
powers, for telescopes of different size. The signal for classical quantities increases with the ature of 10,000 K. Sirius' angular size
intensity I; the signal in power spectra and similar functions suitable for variability searches, as is some 6 milliarcseconds; the diffraction
12 ; and that of four-photon correlations as 14 , as relevant for quantum statistics studies. The limit for one 8-m telescope is about twice
advent of vel)! large telescopes greatly increases the potential for high-speed astrophysics. that, i.e. the diffraction-limit volume is
'::' 23 = 8 times that image volume where
Tef f would be 10,000 K. Compared to
strictly speaking, not a physical observ- to be understood, including those prop- the Sun, the Sirius surface flux density
able: either one detects a photon in a erties that may appear non-intuitive, if is (10,000/5,800)4 '::' 9 times greater, and
time interval, or one does not. < 14 > approached from classical optics. The thus one 8-m telescope, if operated at its
therefore has the meaning of a rapid higher-order optical coherence functions diffraction limit, will measure about the
succession of intensity measurements: are independent from the first-order ones same photon density in its focal volume
<I(t) l(t+l:>t) 1(t+2l:>t) 1(t+3l:>t». In an ex- (which define e.g. the brightness or the if it is pointed at Sirius or at the Sun!
periment where one is studying the multi- spectrum of the source). It then fol-
step ionization of some atomic species, lows that also the signal-to-noise ratios
Atmospheric Intensity
where four successive photons have to must be independent from the latter. This
be absorbed in rapid succession, one somewhat non-intuitive situation was en-
Scintillation
notes how a doubling of the light inten- countered already in the intensity inter- However, before observed intensity
sity causes a 16-fold increase in the ion- ferometer which could not measure cool fluctuations can be ascribed to any as-
ization efficiency. Or indeed, for light of
identical intensity, how the efficiency may
increase if the illuminating light source is
changed to another of the same intensity Measured:
but with different statistical properties, i.e. • ¢ 25 mm
-2
a different value of < 14 >. But it does not " ¢ 50 mm
• ¢ 100 mm
stop here. The prospect of improved de- o ¢ 200 mm
tectors will further increase the efficiency • ¢ 600 mm

in a multiplicative manner. An increased

quantum efficiency in the visual of a fac- -4
tor 3, say, or in the near infrared a fac-
tor 10, will mean factors of 10 and 100
in second-order quantities, while the sig-
nal in fourth-order functions will improve
-6
by factors 100 and 10,000, respectively.
These factors should thus be multiplied
with those already large numbers in Fig-
ure 8, to give the likely gains for the VLT
equipped with future detectors, as com- -8 Synthetic:
pared to present ones. - ¢ 120mm
Due to analogous steep dependences - - ¢ 500 mm
- - ¢ 2000 mm - - - - 30% central obscuration
on intensity, the research field of non- ---- ¢ 8000 mm obscured & opodlzed
linear optics was opened up for study - 10 1...----L.---L.....L...J.....L..l..u..L..._..L.-J......I.....L..LJ..l.I.L...-......L........L.....J....l....l..I..J...Ll-_..L.-.L...l.....L..J..J...U.I
by the advent of high-power laboratory 0.1 10 100 1000
lasers. In a similar vein, the advent of
very large telescopes could well open up Frequency [Hz]
the field of high-speed astrophysical vari-
ability and bring astronomical quantum Figure 9: Atmospheric intensity scintillation around A 500 nm for telescopes of different aperture
optics above a detection threshold. sizes. The symbols are values measured on La Palma during good summer conditions for small
telescope apertures. This sequence was fitted to synthetic power spectra for up to 8 metre
diameter, thus predicting the scintillation in a VL T unit telescope. The bold curves are for fully
Signal-fa-noise at the quantum limit open apertures. The inclusion of a central obscuration, corresponding to the secondary mirror
(here taken as 30% of the primal)! diameter), increases the scintillation power, while apodization
In the limit of the highest time reso- of this aperture (i.e. introducing a smooth intensity fall-off near its edges), decreases it for high
lution, the statistical nature of light has temporal frequencies (Oravins et al. 1995).

17
tronomical source, the intensity scintil- spondingly larger area, averaging out ground of the starlight which has been
lations caused by the Earth's turbulent primarily the smaller-scale (and thus spectrally dispersed by the atmosphere.
atmosphere must be adequately under- more rapidly varying) components. This The 'blue' part in the 'flying shadows'
stood, measured, and calibrated for. An is seen in Figure 9, which shows the on the ground is displaced from its 'red'
understanding of atmospheric scintilla- scintillation power spectrum predicted for part, but the structure of the 'shadows'
tion is needed both for the optimal de- the 8-metre VLT unit telescopes. These is similar. As these race past the tele-
sign of instrumentation and the observ- curves were obtained from theoretical scope, a time difference is visible. In
ing strategies, and in the analysis of the models for apertures of different size the violet, the dispersion of air changes
data, segregating astrophysical variabil- (computed by A.T.Young), where the nor- rapidly with wavelength, which explains
ity from terrestrial effects. malization to actual scintillation ampli- the significant differences between the
For this purpose, extensive observa- tude and atmospheric windspeed was nearby wavelenghts of A 365 and A400
tions of stellar intensity scintillation on .obtained by fitting the models to repre- nm. These effects, however, appear only
short and very short time scales (100 sentative observations. if looking along a wind direction, i.e. the
ms-100 ns) were made during several direction of motion of the 'flying shad-
weeks of observing with the Mark I ver- What will not change? ows'. At right angles from this, there is
sion of our QVANTOS instrument, used no effect.
on the Swedish 60-cm telescope on La By no means will effects of scintillation An understanding of such phenomena
Palma (Dravins et al. 1995). Atmospheric disappear in very large telescopes. While is obviously required when searching for
scintillation was measured as function of some quantities (e.g. the power in Fig. 9) astrophysical phase shifts between vari-
telescope aperture size and shape; de- will decrease, others are independent of ations in different colours, such as be-
gree of apodization; for single and dou- telescope size. An example of the latter tween oscillations in different layers in-
ble apertures; for single and binary stars; is the temporal correlation between scin- side accretion columns (visible at differ-
in different optical colours; using differ- tillation in different colours. Near zenith, ent wavelengths due to different opaci-
ent optical passbands; at different zenith the intensity fluctuations are simultane- ties), or in searching for time delays be-
distances; at different times of night; and ous, but with increasing zenith angle tween fluctuations in different spectral
different seasons of year. Data were (and increasing wavelength difference), lines, perhaps formed in the same deex-
recorded as temporal auto- and cross- a time delay may develop (Fig. 10). This citation cascade with photons of different
correlation functions, and intensity prob- is visible as a shift of the cross corre- wavelengths emitted more or less simul-
ability distributions, sometimes supple- lation maximum away from the origin. taneously.
mented by simultaneous video record- The 'flying shadows' on the ground be- A deeper understanding of scintillation
ings of the stellar speckle images, as well come chromatic, a projection onto the in the Earth's atmosphere might be ap-
as seeing disk measurements in an ad-
jacent telescope.
Several scintillation properties can be
understood in terms of the illumination
pattern caused by diffraction in inho- 1.0 ep= 60 em
mogeneities of high atmospheric lay-
ers. These structures are carried by
Z = 66°
J;:!
/,j:;~~
""
winds, resulting in 'flying shadows' on 0.5 .......r·· ·v~
the ground (Codona 1986). The depen- ~ . . .
dence on aperture diameter 0 was stud-
0.0 365/700 nm
ied, using rapidly changeable mechan-
ical masks in front of the telescope.
~ 1.0
This aperture dependence disappears 0
for 0 :::; 5 cm. On such spatial scales, .....
.....,
the structures in the 'flying shadows' on ro
....... 0.5
the ground appear resolved (both the au-
tocorrelation half-widths and the ampli-
......
Q)

tudes then become independent of aper- 0

U 0.0
ture size). On these scales, also differ-
ences in scintillation between different
colours become apparent.
Measured autocorrelations were
transformed to power spectra. The power 0.5
decreases for larger apertures (espe-
................
cially at high frequencies), reflecting the - 550/700 nm
spatial averaging of small-scale turbu- 0.0 700/700 nm
lence elements. At frequencies f 2: 100
Hz, the power decreases approximately - 60 -40 -20 a 20 40 60
as f -5. The observed statistics of in- Delay [ms]
tensity variations can be adequately de-
scribed by log-normal distributions, vary- Figure 10: Cross correlation between atmospheric intensity scintillation in different colours. Near
ing with time. zenith such fluctuations are simultaneous, but with increasing zenith angle a time delay develops.
In this sequence from La Palma, scintillation at A 700 nm was auto-correlated, as well as cross-
correlated with that simultaneously measured at A 550, 400, and 365 nm. With increasing
Scintillation in the VLT: wavelength difference, (a) the 'agreement' (i.e. degree of correlation) between scintillation in
what will change? different colours decreases (thick curves), and (b) a time delay develops, visible as a shift of
the correlation maximum (normalized thin curves). This effect is due to atmospheric dispersion,
Very large telescopes integrate the which causes chromatic displacements of the 'flying shadows' on the ground, an effect due to
'flying shadow' pattern over a corre- the atmosphere and independent of the size of the telescope (Dravins et al. 1995).

18
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19
 REPORTS FROM OBSERVERS

A Prominent Ionization Cone and Starburst Ring in

the Nearby Circinus Galaxy
A. MARCONP, A.F.M. MOORW000 2 , L. ORIGLlA3 and E. OLlVA4
1 Dipartimento di Astronomia e Scienza della Spazio, Universita di Firenze, Italy; 2 ESO-Garching;
3 Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, Italy; 4 Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy

Introduction within the context of AGN unification pends on viewing angle. Supporting ev-
schemes, it has been proposed that the idence has come from the detection of
The characteristic spectra of Seyfert primary difference between Seyferts of 'hidden' BLR's in reflected polarized, light
nuclei have long been generally at- type 1 and 2, i.e the broad permitted lines and of ionization cones which imply some
tributed to photoionization by the hard seen in the former, could be attributed 'collimation' of the nuclear UV continuum
UV continuum of a central black hole and to the presence of an obscuring torus in (c.f Antonucci 1993 for a review). Also
associated accretion disk. More recently, which case visibility of the nucleus de- of interest in the context of unification

Figure 1: SUSI image of the Circinus galaxy In the 5100 A continuum. Figure 2: Same as Figure 1 at 7000 A. Note that only the southern
N is at the top and E to the left. The 10" scale bar applies to the large 'nucleus'is visible.
image and the insert shows the nuclear region enlarged by a factor 5.
The contours are from the K'(2. 1 J.,m) image. Note the double nucleus
at 5100 A and the displacement of the K' peak relative to the southern
component.

Figure 3: Same as Figure 1 but in the [Olll} line. Note the clear cone- Figure 4: Same as Figure 1 but in the Hex + [Nil} which reveals a par-
shaped structure and the displacement between the line and K' con- tial starburst ring.
tinuum peaks.

20
Figure 5: Same as Figure 1 but in the [SII] line. Note the remarkable Figure 6: [OIll}/(Ho:+[NIIJ) showing the ionization structure of the cone.
chain of spots in the SW which are probably supernova remnants. The uniform dark blue region is where Ho:+[NII] but not [0111] was
detected at more than 10".

Figure 7: Same as the ESO filters (including transmission

Figure 6 for [SII]/Ho:. curves) can be found within MIDAS using
The chain of spots the command CREAlGUI FILTER.
in the SW believed In each filter we took several short
to be supernova
(15 min) integrations with the object
remnants are par-
ticularly obvious.
at different positions on the CCD. The
images were then flat-fielded, dark-
subtracted, realigned and stack together
using AVERAGE/IMAGE which also re-
moved cosmic-ray events (using the 'me-
dian option'). The resulting frames were
then sky subtracted and flux calibrated
following standard procedures.
The most difficult part of the reduc-
tion was the continuum subtraction. The
galaxy lies close to the galactic plane in a
field crowded with foreground stars of dif-
ferent colours (Figs. 1, 2) and, within the
galaxy itself, there are large colour vari-
ations caused by patchy extinction (e.g.
is the evidence for circumnuclear star- text we have obtained both line ([0111], a dust lane) and different stellar popula-
bursts in many Seyferts which may be HQ' + [Nil], [SII], [FeXI]) and contin- tions (e.g. a bluer starburst in the central
only circumstantially associated with the uum (5100, 7000 A, J(1.25/-lm), H(1.65), few arcsec). A straight line-continuum
AGN activity but could also be consistent K'(2.1)) images using SUS I at the NTT (e.g. HQ'-7000 A) image subtraction pro-
with suggestions that the central black and IRAC2 at the 2.2-m telescope on La duced negative regions corresponding to
hole forms and/or is fuelled by the rem- Silla. Our purpose here is to describe the red objects (including the compact nu-
nants of a precursor starburst. observations and show the results which, cleus of the galaxy) while blue objects
In the Circinus galaxy, at a distance because of the closeness of this galaxy, left a positive residual. This problem was
of only 4 Mpc, we believe we have provide very striking examples of an ion- overcome by creating artificial continuum
discovered the closest example of a ization cone and circumnuclear starburst. images at the line wavelengths using a
Seyfert galaxy showing both a promi- A more detailed analysis, including the power law interpolation between contin-
nent ionization cone and a circumnu- modelling referred to below, will be pub- uum frames at shorter and longer wave-
clear starburst ring. Circinus is a spi- lished in a forthcoming paper. lengths. This gave satisfactory results for
ral galaxy of uncertain type which lies all line images except [FeXI] whose un-
close to the galactic plane and whose Observations derlying continuum (at.\ ':0:' 8000A) could
IRAS infrared luminosity is a moderate not be accurately reproduced by extrap-
1010 L8 . Evidence for Seyfert activity Optical line and continuum images olation from 7000 A (the reddest contin- "

is provided by its large [NII]/HQ' ratio were obtained in April 1993 with SUSI uum point) while a suitable longer wave-
and, more compellingly, by its extremely at the NTT. Seeing which was both length filter could not be simultaneously
prominent visible and infrared coronal good (':0:' 0.7") and stable for several mounted in SUSI for technical reasons.
lines from ions with ionization energies hours contributed to obtaining a satis- Adding the J (1.25 ~lm) IR broad band
up to 300 eV (Oliva et al. 1994, hereafter factory subtraction of background stars image provided a partial solution but at
094) including [SiIX](3.95/-lm, 303 eV) in the final line images. The filters em- the cost of decreased image quality (the
and [SIX](1.26/-lm, 323 eV) detected for ployed were ESO #700 ([SII]), #629 IR image was taken under poorer seeing
the first time. (HQ'+[NII]), #369 ([0111]), #430 (5100A conditions).
In order to further investigate the na- continuum), #443 (7000 A continuum) The IR images were obtained with the
ture of this galaxy within the above con- and #415 ([FeXI].\7892). More details on IRAC2 camera at the ESO/MPI 2.2-m

21
 ground stars) and subtracted from the
object frames. The resulting frames were
then flat-fielded and stacked to create the
10 final images which were finally flux cali-
brated using measurements of standard
stars.
One advantage of the large number
o of foreground stars was that the relative
positional alignment of the infrared and
visible images could be accurately deter-
mined without using features within the
galaxy itself.

Results
False-colour representations of the
'0
optical continuum and line images are
<l 10 shown in Figures 1-5 together with the
overlayed K'(2.1 JJm) isophotes and en-
largements (x 5) of the nuclear region in
the top right corners. Details are given
o in the captions. Note the small shift
between the K' and optical continuum
peaks which is about 2.5 (J of the residu-
als in the image alignment.
-10
Line ratio images, produced by
smoothing the line frames and including
only the pixels where both lines were de-
-10 o 10 20 -1 0 1 2 3
tected above 10 a, are shown in Figures
D.a.. (arcsec) 6-7; the uniform dark blue zones repre-
sent regions with detected HC\'+[NII] but
with no [0111] or [SII] emission within the
Figure 8: Contour plots from the IRAC2 J, Hand K' images. The insert shows an increase in above limits.
compactness with increasing wavelength but no relative displacements (within the uncertainties) Contour plots of the IR broad band im-
of the single nuclear peak. ages are displayed in Figure 8 together

telescope. The K'(2.1 JJm) image was ob-

tained in July 1993 under photometric
conditions but relatively poor seeing con-
ditions (FWHM ~ 1.6/1) while the J and
H observations were performed in June
1994 through thin cirrus but with bet- 6
ter image quality (seeing FWHM = 0.9- 10
0.5 1.0
1.0/1). Data consisted of several pairs of
object and sky frames plus dome flats Peak positions
with different levels of illumination. The 1: J (1.25 j-Lm)
scale in all images was 0.27"/pixel (lens ,...-.... 2: H (1.65 j-Lm)
LB of IRAC2) which provided an ade- ()
Q) 3: K (2.2 j-Lm)
quate field of view with proper sampling
rn 4: 5100 A
of the seeing disk. () 0
For the data reduction sky images ~ 5: 7000 A
were first computed from the stack of sky CO 6: [Fe XI]
'--'"
frames (including removal of the back- 7: Ha+[N II]
'0
<l 8: [8 II]
9: [0 III]
Figure 9: Summary plot showing the relative
locations of line and continuum features. The
contours in the upper part are [OIIIJ and the -10
enlarged view of the nuclear region shows the
coronal [FeXIJ line distribution and its location
relative to both [OIIIJ and the K' continuum
(nucleus). The insert in the upper right hand
corner shows the relative displacements of the
various line and continuum peaks. Note that -1 o 2
all the visible peaks are displaced along the
cone relative to the K' peak and that the [SII} o 10 20 30
(low ionization) line is strongest between the
higher excitation [OIlIJ and [FeXIJ line peaks. D.a.. (arcsec)
22
with an enlargement of the central region
which clearly shows that, although the
nucleus is much more peaked in K' than
in Hand J, its position does not vary sig-
nificantly with wavelength (the IR images
are aligned within 0.2//).
The relative positions of the central
peaks in the various lines and continua
are summarized in Figure 9 where we
also include the contours of the [FeXI]
coronal line image (see also 094). Note
that, while the optical line/continua im-
ages are aligned within 0.04", the rela-
tive position of the IR peak is more un-
certain (± 0.2" 30") but sufficient to show
a shift between the optical and IR contin-
uum peaks.
A 'true-colour' line image (red = [SII],
green = HCY+[NII], blue = [0111]) is shown
in Figure 10 where the structure of the
cone and of the surrounding galaxy are
best visible.

The nucleus
In the continuum at 5100 A (Fig. 1) the
emission is dominated by late B stars
associated with an old starburst and ex-
tends over several arcsec with two spa-
tially resolved peaks which are sepa-
rated by 2// N-S but connected by a
fainter bridge. The southern peak is co-
incident with the much more prominent
7000 A nucleus (Fig. 2 ) which is single Figure 10: A 'true colour' image of the Circinus galaxy with red = [SIIJ, green = Ho:+[NIIJ and
and unresolved. In the infrared (Fig. 8) blue = [0111]. This representation clearly shows the ionization cone, the extended circumnuclear
the nucleus also shows only a single starburst and the chain of supernova remnants to the S.
peak whose position is coincident at J, H
and K' but which is more sharply peaked
at K'. This infrared peak is also shifted
by 0.25// relative to the southern visible Within the cone there are high- detailed spectroscopic study of the ex-
peak in the direction away from the ion- excitation [FeXI] (see 094 for more tended NLR of NGC1 068 (Bergeron et al.
ization cone (Fig. 9). We therefore as- details of the coronal line emis- 1989). One possibility is that the [SII] knot
sume that the 'true' nucleus is at or close sion) and [0111] clumps with observed is a photodissociating (or photoevapo-
to the position of the infrared peak and [OIII]/Hcy+[NII] > 2 (Fig. 6) or > 4 after rating) molecular cloud with a large col-
that the shift of the visible peak is an correction for reddening. The relative po- umn density of freshly ionized gas leav-
extinction effect. Extinction of the 'true' sitions of the various line and continuum ing the cloud at sound speed (~1 0 km/s)
nucleus by Av c:: 20 magnitudes would peaks are shown in Figure 9. Both the which shields the rest of the material from
be enough to hide it at 7000 A but not intensities and spatial distribution of the soft ionizing photons but is transparent to
at 1.25 pm and this value is close to that high excitation lines can be modelled as- X-rays (lw > 100eV) which produce a
derived from the 9.7 pm silicate feature suming photoionization by a power law large partially ionized region at the sur-
(Moorwood & Glass, 1984). The north- spectrum and a suitably low gas den- face of the cloud.
ern peak at 5100 A shows faint Hcy and sity, i.e. n e ~ 40 cm- 3 , to obtain an ion- We expect to obtain more detailed in-
[SII] emission, indicative of HII regions or ization parameter U ~ 0.01. Pure pho- formation on the relative roles of pho-
supernova remnants, but its nature is un- toionization models, however, cannot ex- toionization and other excitation mech-
clear and we have proposed polarimetric plain the simultaneous appearance of anisms from visible (EMMI) and infrared
imaging with HST to test if the visible 'nu- the prominent [SII] emission which peaks (IRSPEC) spectroscopy scheduled at the
clear' emission is dominated by scattered between [FeXI] and [0111] and is coin- NTT in March 1995.
light. cident within 0.1// with the Hcy + [Nil] The line emission outside the cone
peak (Figs. 4, 5, 9) and reaches [SII]/Hcy (P.A. < 10°) is typical of low excitation HII
The ionization cone + [Nil] 2: 0.4 in some regions (Fig. 7). regions and is probably associated with
Our actual model which reproduces the the circumnuclear starburst described
The galaxy shows a spectacular, one- high-excitation species predicts that [SII] below.
sided [0111] ionization cone (Fig. 3) whose should be produced about 0.4 11 beyond
asymmetry is probably due to extinction the [0111] peak and pure photoionization Circumnuclear starburst activity
by the galaxy disk (i c:: 65°) which also models in general are unable to account
contains a prominent dust lane visible to for this reverse distribution regardless The Hcy image (Fig. 4) clearly reveals
the SE of the nucleus in the continuum of the adopted nuclear ionizing contin- the presence of a young starburst (:::; 108
images (Figs. 1, 2). uum. A similar problem was found in a yr) lying c:: 1011 (200 pc) from the nu-

23
c1eus and almost encircling it. Our suppo- cal and IR spectrum (Oliva et al. 1994, in not be explained by pure photoioniza-
sition that the brightest extranuclear Ha preparation) are well fitted by a combina- tion models. This cone originates in a
emission is from normal HII regions is tion of late-B main-sequence stars and nucleus whose visible and infrared po-
also supported by the very low values of late K supergiants, i.e. typical of a star- sitions are spatially shifted suggesting
[SII]/Ha+[NII] (Fig. 7). burst which is much older (many x 108 that the true nucleus suffers A v ':::' 20
Between the nucleus and the outer yr) than the starburst ring. magnitudes of extinction. Our observa-
starburst there are regions with remark- The above results are consistent with tions are thus consistent with the pres-
ably strong [SII] emission (Fig. 5) which a simple model in which a starburst prop- ence of a torus which both obscures the
most probably traces shocks from super- agates out of the nucleus. At the outer Seyfert nucleus from direct view and col-
nova remnants. edge we see the most massive 0 stars limates its UV continuum emission. In
A remarkable feature is the series of from the latest generation (those pho- addition, a starburst ring which mayor
'spots' visible in the continuum and low- toionizing the HII regions) while closer may not be related to the Seyfert nu-
excitation lines (Figs. 1, 4, 5, 7 and 10) inside less massive (early B) stars are cleus is also present. Older starburst ac-
which are aligned along a chain ':::' 20/1 still producing supernovae and remnants tivity, which is perhaps more relevant to
south of the nucleus. These are the low- responsible for the [SII] emission. In the the possible evolutionary connection be-
est excitation objects (i.e. those with the central regions (nucleus excluded) the tween starbursts and Seyfert activity, ap-
highest [SII]/Ha+[NII] ratio ) which, to- high density of late B stars is responsi- pears to have occurred closer to the nu-
gether with their sizes (':::' 30 pc), sug- ble for the unusually blue colours while K cleus. A puzzling discovery is the chain of
gests that they are individual supernova supergiants dominate the near IR emis- compact, low excitation, objects,:::, 20/1 S
remnants, possibly in small OB associ- sion. of the nucleus which are probably super-
ations dominated by B stars. Additional nova remnants and associated B stars
spectroscopy and/or radio observations Conclusions but require further study.
are needed to clarify their exact na-
ture. As their orientation does not corre- Line and continuum images of the
spond to any obvious morphological fea- Circinus galaxy have revealed a promi- References
ture we can only presume that they trace nent ionization cone with coronal gas
the location of a gaseous spiral feature ([FeXI]) close to its apex and lower ex- Antonucci, R., 1993, ARAA, 31, 473.
Bergeron J., Petitjean P., Durret F., 1989, A&A
in which starburst activity has already citation [0111] emission further out which
213,61.
ceased. is consistent with photoionization by a Moorwood A.F.M., Glass I.S., 1984, MNRAS
Within the central R ::; 2/1 (4 pc) the power law central source. Low excita- 135,281.
optical continuum images and the stellar tion [SII] emission observed between the Oliva E., Salvati M., Moorwood A.F.M., Mar-
absorption features observed in the opti- [FeXI] and [0111] peaks, however, can- coni M., 1994, A&A 288,457.

Multi-Wavelength Study of ROSAT Clusters

of Galaxies
M. PIERRE, CEAlOSMIOAPNIA CE Saclay, France, and Max-Planck-lnstitutfOr Extraterrestrische
Physik, Garching, Germany
R. HUNSTEAO, A. REIO, G. ROBERTSON, University of Sydney, Australia
Y MELLlER, G. SOUCAIL, Observatoire de Toulouse, France
H. BOHRINGER, H. EBELING, W VOGES, Max-Planck-Institut fOr Extraterrestrische Physik,
Garching, Germany
C. CESARSKY, J. OUKBIR, J.-L. SAUVAGEOT, L. VIGROUX, CEAlOSMIOAPNIA CE Saclay,
France

1. Clusters of Galaxies ties known in the universe, clusters should ideally be reflected in the evolu-
as Cosmological Probes of galaxies are key objects for testing tion of the cluster mass function. While
the predictions of the various cosmo- the mass of a cluster is not a directly
Among the 60,000 X-ray sources de- logical scenarios. They originated from observable quantity, a number of other
tected by the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, the highest peaks in the initial den- physical parameters can be measured
about one tenth are expected to be clus- sity fluctuations, and are expected to directly and, therefore, provide a detailed
ters of galaxies. This represents a con- have evolved through characteristic pro- picture of the dynamical cluster environ-
siderable potential for cosmological stud- cesses, namely, "top-down" or "bottom- ment as a function of redshift.
ies and has motivated numerous iden- up" depending on the nature of the
tification campaigns, especially at ESO; dark matter ("hot" or "cold"). Practically, 2. Observational Tests
we describe here such a programme to- these alternatives correspond to situa-
gether with associated observations at tions in which clusters formed either from Relevant observations of clusters en-
other wavelengths. the fragmentation of large "pancakes" compass the whole electromagnetic
As the most massive bound enti- or from the merging of sub-groups, and spectrum; a short overview includes:

24
• In the optical, velocity dispersions 3. The Cluster Sample Observed ray flux limited sample of clusters over a
obtained through extensive spectros- at ESO large area which will constitute a unique
copy of cluster galaxies provide tool for studying luminosity and clustering
mass estimates, while the pres- In 1990 we started an observing evolution.
ence of sub-groups in the velocity programme at ESO, aiming at identi-
distribution may be the signature of fying all clusters detected by ROSAT 4. Combined Observations
merging events in the past history of in a single contiguous area covering
the cluster. about 1700 deg 2 around Hydra (a sim- The analysis of the optical/X-ray prop-
• In X-rays, the cluster temperature func- ilar programme is being pursued at the erties of the clusters discovered in the
tion could in principle yield an almost AAT around the SGP). The main goals Hydra region revealed some very inter-
direct determination of the mass func- of the project are to derive the clus- esting objects which motivated a more
tion if virialization is assumed. How- ter X-ray luminosity function and study detailed multi-wavelength follow-up start-
ever, temperatures are known for very the large-scale structures by the spa- ing in 1992. We selected a subsam-
few clusters, and the sensitivity of the tial cluster distribution. The cluster can- pie of intrinsically X-ray-bright clusters,
collimators (prior to ASCA) restricts didates are selected by cross-correlating which are therefore expected to be
such observations to the closest ob- the X-ray source lists, issued from the massive and with redshifts preferentially
jects. On the other hand, the cluster ROSAT survey standard analysis, with above 0.15. The following observing pro-
luminosity function is much easier to the ROE/NRL cluster catalogue, the lat- grammes are now underway:
obtain, and evolution was detected in ter resulting from an automated anal- (1) In the optical, the northernmost ob-
the Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey ysis of the COSMOS object database jects of the sample have been subse-
sample (e.g. Henry et al. 1992 and ref- derived from the scans of the UK/AAO quently studied at the 3.6-m Canada-
erences therein). A tight empirical cor- Schmidt plates. With this method about France-Hawaii telescope in 1993 and
relation between X-ray luminosity and 150 cluster candidates have been se- 1994. Deep B, R photometry and ex-
temperature then enables the shape of lected down to an X-ray flux limit of tensive spectrometry (~ 80 spectra per
the initial fluctuation spectrum in CDM ~ 5 x 10- 1 ,3 erg S-1 cm- 2 in our area. cluster) - with the MOS/SIS device using
scenarios to be constrained (Henry & During the 1990-92 period the pro- a 10' x 10' CCD (2048 2 pixels) - have
Arnaud 1991). gramme was allocated a total of 13 nights been obtained in collaboration with the
Because the mean free path of the with EFOSC on the 3.6-m telescope. The Toulouse group.
hot X-ray emitting gas in the cluster po- strategy has been to observe the tar- (2) ROSAT PSPC pointings, for a few
tential is considerably shorter than that get objects in order of decreasing X-ray selected cases, in order to investigate
of the galaxies, the X-ray morphology flux, so that at any stage the current the outer cluster regions, where on-going
(and size) of clusters provides insights data set is flux limited. For most clus- merging events are expected to be most
into subclustering and merging events ters the multi-slit mode is used (other- readily detected, and to obtain a first es-
which are complementary to the opti- wise, long slit) so that 5-12 redshifts per timate of the temperature.
cal approach. cluster are available, providing in some (3) ROSAT HRI deep pointings, to
• The radio emission from a possible cases an estimate of the velocity disper- study in detail the gas morphology and
cluster halo or particular cluster galax- sion. For this first identification step, the the cluster potential at the centre: sub-
ies may be also a powerful tool for in- EFOSC + MOS mode - giving on aver- structures and correlation with the cD po-
vestigating the physical state and mo- age 7 redshifts per cluster - presents sition (in progress).
tions of the hot intra-cluster medium. the ideal observing set-up, for it allows (4) Radio observations started in 1993
Since the interaction between the hot us to assess directly the membership of in collaboration with the University of
plasma and galaxy halos strongly af- our cluster candidates. Unfortunately, we Sydney. The selected clusters are first
fects the shape of the radio emission, should mention several practical prob- imaged at 843 MHz with the Molon-
the presence of Head-Tailed galax- lems encountered in all runs during the glo Observatory Synthesis Telescope
ies at the cluster periphery or Wide fabrication of the masks, which turned (MOST; 43/f resolution); subsequently,
Angled-Tailed at the cluster centre out to be very time consuming: bad trans- higher resolution maps of the cluster ra-
(usually cDs) can constrain the proper- mission between the computer holding dio sources are obtained with the Aus-
ties of the gas and on the gravitational the slit positions and the punching ma- tralia Telescope (AT; 1.4-5 Ghz, 2-7/f
potential. chine, punching pin breaking down sev- resolution).
• As for the infrared emission of clusters eral times, and overall uneven slit quality (5) A subsample of 14 objects will be
of galaxies as such, only weak IRAS leading to unrecoverable artefacts in the observed by the ISO satellite (1995) in
diffuse emission was detected from a sky subtraction during the subsequent the Central Programme at 7, 14 and 90
small number of poor clusters, but its data analysis. But we acknowledge here I'm (29 hours are allocated to this project:
origin is not yet clear (Bregman 1992). the valuable assistance of the local tech- Cesarsky et al.).
Moreover, clusters are expected to be nical team which enabled us every night
the sites where galaxy interactions are to have our masks ready in time. At 5. Multi-Wavelength Maps
favoured, leading to enhanced star for- present, the redshifts of some 60 clus-
mation. This is a totally open field, and ters have been measured and a detailed In order to exploit fully the 2-D infor-
one expects exciting new results es- optical/X-ray analysis of the 42 brightest mation provided by the images obtained
pecially from the comparison between ones is presented in Pierre et al. (1994). at different wavelengths, the ideal is to
infrared and radio properties of clus- The most distant cluster in the sample overlay them accurately so that a com-
ters. found so far has a redshift of ~ 0.31, and prehensive picture of the cluster environ-
With the coming of large collecting the X-ray sensitivity of the area leads us ment is readily available. Of special in-
area instruments, providing high spa- to expect objects up to .z ~ 0.4. The pro- terest is any correlation amongst the op-
tial and spectral resolution at wave- gramme will be continued in the coming tical galaxy positions, particularly the cD,
lengths far beyond the optical regime, years in order to complete the identifi- the X-ray centroid of the hot ICM (and
a new era will open up, enabling the cation of the sample and thus achieve possibly other field X-ray sources), and
detailed study of moderately distant our scientific goals. For the first time, we the radio sources. This provides impor-
clusters. shall have at our disposal a complete X- tant clues:

25
 (i) Radio sources can be identified and A1060 z= 1. 14000E-02
localized within the cluster;
(ii) It enables a detailed morphological
study, such as a comparison of the over- ROSAT [0.4-2.4 KeV] MOLONGLO [843 MHz]
all shape of the cluster emission in X-rays
(elongation, clumps) with the galaxy dis-
tribution in the optical (alignments, sub-
groups). This point is especially rele-
vant for the investigation of the formation -27.481- _
processes of clusters: the presence of
structures in the X-ray emission associ-
ated with (velocity) sub-groups of galax-
ies is undoubtedly a strong argument in
-27.50
favour of the merging hypothesis (see
Section 1). Moreover, if both X-ray and
radio spatial resolutions are high enough
(~ 5"), then for the nearest objects, an
even more detailed study of the mo- !
'J
-27.52
tions within the ICM is possible with the u
combined morphological analysis of in- w
o
teractions between the hot X-ray emit-
ting plasma and the energetic particles -27.54
producing the radio lobes (Bbhringer et
al. 1993);
(iii) Another interesting point to investi-
gate is the location of the cD galaxy with -27.56 L
respect to the X-ray centroid. In the opti-
cal, there are evidences for the existence
of substructures when the cluster domi-
nant galaxy velocity shows a significant
offset with respect to the cluster's mean 159.20 159.18 159.16 159.14 159.12 159.10
RA (deg.)
(Beers et al. 1991). A non-coincidence
between the optical and X-ray centres
(the latter is supposed to indicate the
(cnt/sec/sq.arcmln) (ly/Beam)
centre of the cluster potential) may be 1rst contour: 1.72800E-03 5. 39926E-Q4
the signature of merging events in the step: 1. 15200E-03 1.50000E-Q3
cluster's history. ROSAT X-ray (red) and Molonglo radio (blue) contours overlaid on the corresponding CCO
(iv) Finally, it allows flagging X- optical image. The absolute instrumental positional accuracy is"" 1-2" in the optical and radio,
ray emitting point-like objects (stars or and"" 20" in the X-ray band (1cJ); the plotting accuracy is discussed on page 46 in this issue
AGNs), which may contaminate the dif- of The Messenger. First and step contours are indicated on the figures.
fuse cluster emission (a crucial problem (Left) Abell 1060 (2 = 0.0124) is a nearby cluster with low radio power (log P(WHr l ) =
22.3, H o = 50 kms- 1 Mpc- l ) and X-ray luminosity ("" 5 x 10 43 erg S-I). In this case the
in the further determination of the X-
number of X-ray survey photons is greater than toOO; in order to improve the angular resolution,
ray cluster luminosity function). Such an we selected only photons falling into the inner part of the detector so that the resulting PSF has a
overlay is presented in the Figure, and FWHM of"" l' instead of ",,2' (but the number of photons is decreased by a factor of ",,5.5). Two
the procedures followed to produce this large elliptical galaxies occupy the centre of the cluster. The radio emission clearly coincides
image are described on page 46 in this with the brighter galaxy (NGC 3309), whereas the X-ray centroid appears to favour the other
issue of The Messenger.

6. Preliminary Results

Reduction of the CFH data and over, our sample, which possesses a sig- concerned is now underway, in order to
ROSAT pointings is in progress, as well nificant fraction of objects at z 2: 0.1, sug- characterize their properties.
as the processing of the AT observations. gests that the coincidence between X-ray At the present stage it is too early to
MOST and AT images have been ob- and radio maxima is even stronger for draw definitive conclusions from the X-
tained for 25 clusters so far (from z ~ high redshift clusters. One explanation ray/radio correlations, but if these pre-
0.01-0.3). A preliminary comparison be- for this effect could arise from the fact that liminary results are confirmed with better
tween X-ray, optical and radio survey im- the original sample is close to being X-ray statistics, this may have serious conse-
ages reveals that for a high fraction of flux limited, which means that the dis- quences for the practical determination
clusters there is coincidence between the tant clusters are 10-100 times brighter of the cluster X-ray luminosity function.
X-ray centroid (or an X-ray peak) and the intrinsically than the nearby ones. Con- On the other hand, this is only one as-
presence of a radio galaxy (see Pierre, sequently, we might have been selecting pect of the entire programme which, once
Hunstead & Unewisse 1994 for more de- objects in which the X-ray flux is con- completed, should provide a unique set
tails). This is in agreement with the find- taminated significantly by emission from of data for the dynamical study of clus-
ings of Burns et al. (1994) who attribute an active galactic nucleus. Indeed, in our ters up to z ~ 0.3. In this way, we hope
this to a combination of clumped hot gas sample we found the second brightest to be in a position to understand better
and AGN emission. We will be investi- BL Lac object in the sky. Detailed opti- their formation process, and thus to con-
gating this more closely with the high- cal spectroscopy as well as high reso- strain the nature and amount of dark mat-
resolution X-ray and radio images. More- lution radio observations of the galaxies ter present in the universe.

26
 A3444 Z=2.541?OE-01
The VLT Site
RDSAT [0.4-2.4 keVl MOLONGLO [843 f"IHz 1
at Parana/:
-27.22 September 1994
The centrefold of "The Messenger"
shows an aerial view of Cerro Paranal,
the site of ESO's Very Large Tele-
scope. This photo was obtained in mid-
-27.24
September 1994 and shows the rapid de-
velopments at the time of the construc-
tion of the concrete base for the four
OJ telescope enclosures. Also visible is the
I1J
"d
-27.26
complex infrastructure for the various as-
sociated laboratories. This work is being
done by the Skanska/Belfi consortium.
The installations for the technical equip-
ment can be seen to the left.
-27.28 The blasting work is now finished and
excavations for the various connecting
tunnels are clearly visible; they will be
covered again when the concrete work is
ready To the right, the work on the base
-27.30 for Unit Telescope no. 1 is already well
under way and in September reached the
155.98 155. 96 155.94 155.92 "floor level" on which the enclosure will
RA (deg. )
be placed. The basement concrete floor
(cnt/sec/sq.arcmln) U~/Beam) on which the coude focus for Telescope
lrst cant-our: 3. 385ZZE-03 5.00000E-03
steo: 2. 86680E-03 1.70000E-03 no. 2 will be installed is in place, and the
concrete work will soon start in the holes
for Telescopes 3 and 4.
To the extreme right and a little lower
than the rest of the platform are the ex-
(NGC 3311). The white contours are from a recent high-resolution image obtained at 13 em
with the Australia Telescope; the radio source appears, however, not to be resolved. The CCO cavations for the control building. The
image is a 250 s exposure obtained in B band at the AAT platform altitude is about 2640 metres
(Right) Abell 3444 (z = 0.254) is one of the most distant clusters in the present sample. above sea level and it measures about
At the survey resolution, the X-ray image is point-like. The radio emission is probably slightly 150 metres across. The width of the ac-
extended to the north (which should not be confused with the natural N-S elongation of the
beam). Both X-ray and radio intensities are high: '" 3 x 10 45 ergs- 1 and log P(WHr 1 ) =
cess road is no less than 12 metres, i.e.
24.4 respectively, and clearly centred on the cluster dominant galaxy. The exact coincidence nearly equal to that of a three-lane high-
observed here appears to occur in many of the cluster fields, especially for the high redshift way; this is necessary to ensure the safe
clusters in the sample. The CCO image is a 3-minute EFOSC exposure in R band. transport of all telescope parts to the top,
especially the four 8.2-m fragile mirrors.
In October 1994, the first shipment of
steel parts of this enclosure (manufac-
tured by the SEBIS consortium) with a
Acknowledgements Bregman J. N., 1992 in Clusters and Super- total weight of more than 100 tons left Eu-
clusters of Galaxies, p. 119, Cambridge, rope for the sea journey to Chile. While
M.P. is grateful to the Max-Planck- July 1991, Ed. A Fabian, Kluwer. the smaller parts were packed in large
Institut fUr Extraterrestrische Physik for Henry J.P., & Arnaud KA, 1991, ApJ. 372, 410.
Henry J.P., Gioia I.M., Maccacaro 1., Morris
containers, special packing was neces-
long-term financial support. We also ac-
S.L., Stocke J.T, Wolter A, 1992, ApJ. 386, sary for the very large structures. The
knowledge a grant by the EC Human
Capital Programme, contract CHRX-
408. ship left the port of Marghera, Italy, and is
Pierre M., B6hringer H., Ebeling H., Voges W, expected to dock in Antofagasta towards
CT92-003. Schuecker P., Cruddace R., MacGillivray H.,
the end of December 1994, after which
1994, Astronom. Astrophys. 290, 725.
Pierre M., Hunstead R., Unewisse A., 1994, the parts will be transported by truck to
Combined X-ray/optical/radio observations the top of Paranal.
References of ROSAT clusters of galaxies, in Cosmo- This first shipment will be soon fol-
logical Aspects of X-Ray Clusters of Galax- lowed by others. It is expected that con-
Beers TC., Forman W, Huchra J.P., Jones C.,
ies, p. 73-77, Munster, June 1993, ed. Seit-
Gebhardt K., 1991 AJ. 102, 1581. signments of about 100 tons each will be
ter, Kluwer.
B6hringer H., Voges W, Fabian A.C., Edge sent to Chile over the next eight months.
AC., Neumann D.M., 1993 MNRAS 264,
L25-28.
The enclosure erection will start in Jan-
Burns, J. 0., Rhee G., Owen E, Pinkey, J. uary 1995 and will be completed in about
1994 ApJ. 423, 94. 8 weeks. M. Tarenghi

27
The Cluster Environment of BL Lac Objects
R. FALOMO, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy, and
J.E. PESCE, STScl, Baltimore, US.A.

Introduction
BL Lac objects (hereafter BL Lacs) are
an unusual kind of active galactic nu-
. ...- . .,.
-... -

~
- -.;: ...,-- -
- • - •
•••••~- ....: • A
-
.. I
--.-
,
.. .-- - -:-e - - -
..~...
-,

clei (AGN) which exhibit extreme prop-

erties of flux variability (large amplitude
200
....
,
I • ' ..... ~.t!, ~- ~
... _.
.~ -
,. . . .
-__ .. ..... •
",.. .....,
• .,.'. .,:1,-' ... .- -..' .
and short time scales) and polarization • .. ' ~
_...1' - ,---~._. -
- -. - . • I
5'
"
together with a strong non-thermal emis- ,' ' . ,';:'. -.. - ',a . . ~.~
\ •\ , . •' ... •• f7
,~ .,,' ,,--file .. - --~',..
sion over a wide frequency range (e.g. " - - ,
Angel & Stockman 1980; Bregman 1990; • ••• ": /. I
Kollgaard 1994). I .-1' ....
\ ,."
\ \ ._,
.... •
..; ..: ' ~.' • ,'---_"
• ' . .' I

• " " .,. " .\1

~.., '~. '~'~".
At variance with most of the other
•• ; ;.... : -.. :.1
AGN, the optical spectra of BL Lac ob-
jects lack the strong emission lines that o
:
..
... ..'.."
..a
.
•
..
~'. '.
"

.A.".' ...-...
... ".'
'. .' , I· , .
":- -'.. ''. , .-..
1 '... '. -
• •."', . . '
~'.
IT'·.A.
' .,~,
' ....' ' -. • •

"'Cr:"',':'.
characterize quasars and Seyfert galax- ' , '
..... ' ,.. ,.' .', ,'. , :' ' . I
ies. This peculiar characteristic prevents
an easy determination of the redshift and •
'IF'.' _ ----' ;.
:.,,' I
, ,,~,"~.
"
the discovery of BL Lacs in optical sur-
veys. Imaging studies have shown, how-
". ~. -.. , ... t'
'

,' •• ' •·1

ever, that many BL Lacs reside in the
nuclei of giant elliptical galaxies, whose .,. -_a--.-.. -.-','. .,,'
.... ....',
~ 'I· --....- ----.' ••,'. ,'. :.. •
'. .• •..•
~." .-~ .\--,,-----, ",' ," • •••• ·1
-I
contribution is sometimes detectable in
the optical spectra, allowing the mea-
surement of the redshift of the sources.
In contrast to the thousands of quasars
that have been discovered in the last
-200
•
- -
--....
.-. - -.---'-
••
•
--
• ,-
." ....
--------
. '~ •
-....
-#- -
--'a
..... - •
••
• I
I

decades, the number of known BL Lacs

is less than a few hundred. Only recently -200 o 200
with X-ray surveys and/or with a combi-
nation of radio, optical and X-ray surveys
has it been possible to construct size-
able and complete samples of BL Lacs
(Giommi et al. 1991; Stocke et al. 1991;
Stickel et al. 1991; Schachteret al. 1993).
The peculiar properties of this class
of AGN are currently interpreted, in the
framework of unified models, as radio
galaxies with a relativistic jet which is
closely aligned to the observer's line of
sight. The power-law continuum and its
polarization and variability together with ~

C)
the superluminal motion shown by many Q)
[1J
objects are all suggestive of the pres- C)
ence of anisotropic relativistic emission. !-<
ttl
It is also remarkable that BL Lacs (and
blazars in general) are luminous ,-ray
emitters (Hartman et al. 1993) provid-
ing model-independent support for the
presence of relativistic motion in jets
(Maraschi, Ghisellini, & Celotti 1992).
This hypothesis, originally proposed
by Blandford and Rees (1978), implies
the existence of a large number of ob-
jects intrinsically identical to the BL Lacs
but with the jet pointing away from the
observer. It is currently proposed that
the low-luminosity (F-R I) radio galax-
ies (or a fraction of them) may represent -200 o 200
the parent population of BL Lacs (e.g. X (arcsec)
Browne 1989; Urry, Padovani, & Stickel
1991; Kollgaard et al. 1992). As a test of Figure 1: Distribution of galaxies (top) and stars (bottom) in an EMMI frame (R filter 20 min)
this model one can compare unbeamed as derived from the classification obtained by FOCAS.

30
 6
,.....,
S ,.....,
If) C\l
0 .5
-........
C\l
S
C>
i=: 0 h
.§
~~ C(j
-........
4
C>
h + Z
'-'

+
C(j
-........ ...,rn
+
Z i=:
'-"
;j
...,
fIl
u
0
u
.......
:-:::
0
-1
t coh
bD
2

bD ...,
Q)

0
....:l .s
0
-2
16 18 20 22 24
R Magnitude 16 18 20 22 24
R Magnitude
Figure 2: The differential (left) and integral (right) galaxy counts derived from a single CCO EMMI frame (20-min exposure) compared, respectively,
with counts by Metcalfe et al. (1991) and Hintzen et al. (1991) background counts.

properties (such as extended radio emis- ing absorption lines that give a lower limit 0.5-4 Mpc2 for objects at z = 0.07-0.6
sion, host galaxies and environments) of to it. On the imaging front the capability to (we assume Ho = 50 km S-1 Mpc- 1 and
BL Lacs and parent objects or study the detect and classify galaxies over a large qo = 0.5 throughout).
relative luminosity functions. field of view is now easily achievable. After reduction of images using pro-
Here we present a summary of the re- cedures available in the Image Reduc-
The Environment of BL Lacs sults obtained from a programme under- tion and Analysis Facility (IRAF; bias
taken at La Silla to investigate the en- subtraction, trimming, flat fielding), cos-
The study of the environment of BL vironments of BL Lacs and outline the metic defects such as saturated rows and
Lac objects may be a useful tool for un- analysis procedure adopted. To date we columns were cleaned. In certain cases,
derstanding the BL Lac phenomena. It have observed ~ 20 targets that are a some saturated stars were removed as
gives clues to the role played by the en- mixture of radio- and X-ray selected ob- these were found to cause problems in a
vironment for triggering and fuelling the jects. later phase of the analysis. We also re-
activity in elliptical galaxies and in partic- The capability of NTT to change the in- moved all detectable cosmic-rays using
ular may help to enlighten the relation- strument configuration during the same the IRAF task COSMICRAYS.
ship between BL Lacs and their parent observing night also enabled us to ob- In addition to direct images, we ob-
population. tain high-resolution images with SUSI in tained spectra of some of the galaxies
Contrary to the case of quasars, the order to study the close environment and in the field of BL Lacs for a selected
study of the environs of BL Lacs is com- host galaxy properties for a number of BL number of objects. A long slit (2/1 wide)
plicated by the faintness of their spec- Lacs. Here, however, we concentrate on was oriented in such a way as to se-
tral lines with respect to the continuum, the large-scale environment. cure at least two objects at a time. For
hindering the derivation of redshifts and, all spectra, we employed a grism of 300
thus, the proof of physical association Observations and Data Analysis gr mm- 1 giving a dispersion of 246 A
with nearby galaxies. mm- 1 in the range 4000 to 8000 A. Spec-
Until recently only a few studies have We used the ESO NTT operated both tra were wavelength calibrated using an
been conducted on the cluster environ- at La Silla and via remote control from HeAr lamp, and relative flux calibration
ment of BL Lacs (Disney 1974; Craine, Garching to obtain images and spectra was derived from observations of stan-
Tapia, & Tarenghi 1975; Butcher et at. of the fields around BL Lacs. Conditions dard stars (Stone 1977).
1976; Fosbury & Disney 1976; Ulrich were photometric and seeing (FWHM),
1978). These investigations generally as measured on the CCD frames, ranged Classification of Objects
failed to provide clear evidence of a phys- from 0.7 to 1.5 arcsec for most of the data
ical association and it was suggested that obtained. We obtained pairs of images of Because we want to study the distri-
BL Lacs may avoid cluster environments the fields around BL Lacs using EMMI in bution of the galaxies around our pro-
(Weistrop et at. 1981). the R filter with typical exposure times gramme objects, the most important part
The use of modern instrumentation of 2 and 20 minutes. The EMMI images of the analysis involves the detection and
on large optical telescopes enabled the cover a useful field of 7.5 x 7.5 arcmin 2 at classification of objects in each image.
study of BL Lac environments in a much a scale of 0.44 arcsec pixel- 1 (TH 1024 To detect and classify objects (as stars,
more effective way. For more than half of x 1024 pixels; pixel size 19 pm) or 9.7 galaxies, or noise) we adopted the Faint
the known BL Lacs the redshift has been x 8.5 arcmin 2 at a scale of 0.35 arcsec Object Classification and Analysis Soft-
determined either from weak absorption pixel- 1 (1660 x 1450 pixels) depending ware (FOCAS), developed by Jarvis &
lines of the host galaxy or from interven- on the CCD used. This corresponds to Tyson (1981), revised and expanded by

31
 computing the angular and spatial cross-
correlation functions. For about 10 ob-
jects of known redshift we obtained spec-
tra of 1 to 5 galaxies in the field and found
that these galaxies are physically asso-
ciated with the BL Lac objects.
The richness of the cluster may be es-
timated using the number, No5 , of excess
galaxies with m ::::: m3 + 2 (where m3 is
the third-ranked cluster galaxy, projected
within a 0.5 Mpc radius of the cluster cen-
tre. This parameter is related to NR, the
number of galaxies within the standard
Abell radius (3 Mpc; Abell 1958) of the
cluster centre by the empirical relation:
NR = 3.3N o5 (BahcaIl1981).
As an example we report the case of
the bright (mv ;::::; 12.5) BL Lac object PKS
2155-304 at z = 0.116. This is an exten-
sively studied object at every frequency
(e.g., Treves et al. 1989 and references
therein). Our imaging and spectroscopic
study shows that the BL Lac is hosted by
a giant elliptical galaxy of Mv ~ -22.5
which is the dominant member of a poor
cluster of galaxies (see Fig. 5). The host
galaxy has two faint companion galaxies
(G1 and G2) at projected distances less
than 50 Kpc at the same redshift as PKS
2155-304. Moreover, a more conspicu-
Figure 3: Contour plot of a portion of an EMMI CCD frame with superposed the classified objects
ous (Mv = -21.4) galaxy (G4), still at the
(0 galaxies, + stars, x defects or saturated stars). same redshift, is located ~ 113/1 south
of the BL Lac object, corresponding to
a projected distance of ~ 300 kpc. This
galaxy is itself surrounded by faint com-
panions. The richness of the cluster de-
Francisco Valdes of the National Optical sualization of results, we implemented a rived from galaxy counts yields an Abell
Astronomy Observatories. set of procedures using the SuperMongo richness class of about 0 (see Falomo,
Classification of the objects is based command language. These include con- Pesce, & Treves 1993 for more details).
on a comparison of their shape with the tour plots of the field with all classified ob- From our study we found that, on av-
point spread function (PSF) determined jects identified (see Fig. 3) and a number erage, BL Lacs are associated with poor
from many (usually more than 20) stars of interactive tools to look at the distribu-
in the field. Standard classification tem- tion of galaxies (and stars) in the cata-
plates were used following Hintzen et al. logue (see Fig. 1) and its behaviour as a
(1991). For images taken under good function of the magnitude (see Fig. 4).
conditions, the total number of objects 6
This was extremely useful in provid-
classified can be more that 600 for a typ- ing rapid feedback with the output cat-
ical 20-minute exposure (see example in alogues derived from the FOCAS analy-
Fig. 1). sis. After adjusting the critical parameters
Objects were detected and classified (e.g., minimum image size for detection,
up to the magnitude limit (usually R = sigma above and below the sky for detec-
22-23 for a good-quality, 20-minute ex- tion) the FOCAS classifications appear
posure) for each image. These limits accurate for about 90% of the objects.
were determined from the peaks of the As a general remark we found that 20-
differential number-count distribution of 50% of the objects can be missclassified
galaxies (see Fig. 2). Above this limit it if they are at the faintest flux levels (near
becomes difficult to distinguish galaxies the magnitude limit) or if images obtained
from stars with the automatic detection under poor seeing conditions ( ~ 1.7/1).
algorithm of FOCAS. Catalogues of ob-
jects detected were created for each im- Results
age. The automatic classification can be
checked by manual inspection of random Our investigation of BL Lac environ-
objects all over the image. This however ments has provided clear evidence that, oLL..L..l.....LL-,-,-,-LL..L..l.....LL-'-'--'-'L.L-LL-'---'--.J
requires a considerable amount of time. contrary to previous suggestions, BL o 50 100 150 200
In order to speed up the process of Lacs are often located in regions of Distance from PKS 2155-304 (arcsec)
checking the identified objects, we com- higher than average galaxy density. This Figure 4: Density distribution of galaxies as a
bined more catalogues (e.g., derived with is estimated by studying the density dis- function of the distance from the BL Lac object
different exposure times or conditions) of tribution of galaxies as a function of the PKS 2155-304. The arrow marks the distance
the same field. To allow an immediate vi- distance from the BL Lac object and corresponding to 0.5 Mpc radius.

32
Figure 5: (Top) The central part (2.5' x 2.5')
ofthe field of the bright PKS 2155-304 (EMMI
R filter 20 min). The BL Lac object (at the cen-
tre) is here clearly saturated. North is up and
east to the left. The inset shows the immedi-
ate environments as imaged with SUSI (R fil-
ter 5 min) under sub-arcsec seeing conditions.
This image has been deconvolved using the
Richardson-Lucy algorithm. (Bottom) Contour
plot of the field with main objects labelled.

clusters of galaxies (Abell richness class

~ 0). However, some cases of associa-
tion with medium rich clusters exist.

Objects in Rich Environments

One interesting BL Lac object in a rich
environment is PKS 0548-322. This is
a bright (mv = 15.5) and nearby BL
Lac object for which the association with
a cluster of galaxies at z ~ 0.04 was
suggested (Disney 1974). The hypoth-
esis was, however, soon ruled out by
the measurement of the redshift (z =
0.069) of PKS 0548-322 (Fosbury & Dis-
ney 1976).
Our images (see Fig. 6) clearly show
an enhancement of galaxies around
o 0
the source within 0.5 Mpc of projected e
distance from PKS 0548-322. Spec- 00 '0
0 0
• 0 .0 . 06
" a «»

·~6·
troscopy of five of the galaxies in this field 0., 0
o •
0
(G1, G2, G4, G5, G6) confirm they form a 0 0 0
cluster of galaxies physically associated ~. 0
• 0 0
with the BL Lac object. The host galaxy
of PKS 0548-322 is a giant elliptical of " G .
0
OJ 4b N 0'0
Mv = -23.4 and is likely the dominant I' 0
0

o~
tl
member of the cluster. Moreover, it has a
pair of companion galaxies at projected
distance < 40 Kpc, with a clear signature
0
0
•
0

..
•
0
0
0

0 'Gl
o ~
of tidal interactions. Our estimate of the 0
0
0
~
BL Lac '" G (}
richness of the cluster yields No.5 = 29
corresponding to Abell richness class 2 0
~
0
g 0 ._~
e 0

(see Falomo, Pesce, & Treves 1994 for

more details).
•• tJ 0
e
0

Q
Another interesting case is repre- ell
sented by the X-ray selected BL Lac H • •
0

0414+009. This is a relatively more dis-

e·.
0
• 0 •
~
,
tant object (z = 0.287) that is also em- 0
0 0
0

0. •
0
bedded in a luminous (Mv ~ -23.5) el-

....
liptical galaxy (Falomo & Tanzi 1991). 0 0
• 0 e
H 0414+009 (see Fig. 7) is surrounded o.
aliL'
0 0 0
by many faint galaxies exhibiting a pecu-
liar disposition (Falomo, Tanzi, & Treves ,
0 0
~
G4
0

1991). The clustering of the galaxies

around the object suggests they form a
loose group, with some of the galaxies 0
•
• eo
GOtf
oD 0
0
0
Ii
0
0
e
•
forming pairs. The excess of galaxies CD
within 0.5 Mpc with respect to the av-
'0
erage galaxy density is quite clear. We
found 29 galaxies down to the magnitude
limit of mn = 21.5 while a total of 14.4 and A2 are identical within the errors, Conclusions
± 3.8 is expected from average counts. confirming that they form a physical pair.
Spectroscopy of three of the galaxies The richness parameter estimated from Our ongoing study of BL Lac envi-
confirm their physical association while No.5 yields an Abell richness of class O. ronmental properties has shown that BL
one appears to be a foreground object. (See McHardy et al. 1992 and Falomo, Lacs are indeed found in regions of en-
Moreover, the redshifts of galaxies A1 Pesce, & Treves 1993 for more details). hanced galaxy density. They seem to

33
 N

1000

" .
-' E~
o
G2
800 J 0 0 o
,
•,

..•. ..
. 600 0 BL Lac
~~
...... "G.-(.: 7·
'x" • # of>
.. "5.
~
• B2-
OJ
x
'5,
,..
I
600
. Gi ."
--. o o .. I
)->
"
~~ ..•
0
~
"

"
~
,
~
O'
400 A2 o·
. 9 .. 0-p', ..
o
~ 0 0 0
0.' QP
'0
. 0 o. ." • •
~
400 ~
~Al
• - 0

'1 '
200
<>
...lQ".., • •• 0 "..
o
.,
" 0
• 0 0

400 600
.

800 1000
.. •
1200 1000
X-pixels

Figure 6: (Top) The central part (4' x 4.5~ of the field of PKS 0548-32 Figure 7: (Top) The field (1.4' x 1.5') around the X-ray BL Lac (z =
(EMMI R filter 20 min). North is up and east to the left. The BL Lac 0.287) H0414+004 (SUSI R filter 20 min). North is up and east to the
(main object at centre) is surrounded by a group of galaxies at the left. The BL Lac (brightest object near the centre) is clearly in a clus-
same redshift as the giant elliptical hosting 0548-322. (Bottom) Con- ter of galaxies with some of them forming pairs. (Bottom) Contour plot
tour plot of the field with main objects labelled. of the field with main objects labelled.

prefer groups or poor (Abell richness general galaxy-galaxy amplitude A gg of of the proposed BL Lac parent popula-
class 0) clusters. We found that on aver- <Abg/A gg > = 7 ± 4. This value is very tion. Although the properties of the en-
age No.s = 6 ± 4. While some individual similar to what is found in the case of ra- vironments of F-R I class radio galaxies
BL Lacs are found in rich clusters, these dio loud quasars (see e.g. Hartwick and may be somewhat different depending on
seem to be a small minority. Schade 1990 and references therein). the sample considered (e.g., Prestage
From the 18 objects so far investi- Because the properties of the BL Lac & Peacock 1988, 1989; Yates, Miller, &
gated (about 50% of our whole sam- environments are not dependent on ori- Peacock 1989; Hill & Lilly 1991), they
ple) we derived an average amplitude entation effects, they may be a useful tool appear consistent with that derived for
of the angular correlation function (BL to test the beaming model, by compar- BL Lac objects based on the present
Lac - galaxies) A bg normalized to the ison with the environmental properties data. The average value of Nos for F-R

34
I radio galaxies derived combining avail- would help to constrain the proposed uni- Giommi, P., Ansari, S. and Micol, A 1994,
able samples (see Pesce 1993) yields fied schemes of AGN. A&ASS, in press.
<N O.5 > PRJ = 7.1 ± 8. The large scatter Hartwick, FDA and Schade, D. 1990, Ann.
being due in part to differences of sam- Rev. Astr. Astrophys. 28, 437.
Hartman, R., et al. 1993, in Proc. of the 2nd
ples and redshift distribution. Acknowledgement
Compton Symposium, College Park, MD,
We note also that F-R I radio galaxies
We thank A. Treves for useful sugges- Sept. 1993, in press.
represent an heterogeneous class and it Hill, G. J., & Lilly, S. J., 1991, ApJ, 367, 1.
is possible that the parent objects of BL tions to this manuscript. J.E.P. and work
Hintzen, P., Romanishin, W, & Valdes, F,
Lacs form a subset of F-R I galaxies. on BL Lac environments at STScl are 1991, ApJ, 366, 7.
Objects in our sample are a mixture supported by NASA grants NAG5-1034 Jarvis, J. F, & Tyson, J. A, 1981, AJ, 86, 476.
of radio selected and X-ray selected tar- and NAG5-2154. Kollgaard, R. I., et al. 1992, AJ, 104, 1687.
gets (corresponding to radio-strong and Kollgaard, R. I 1994, Vistas in Astronomy, 38,
radio-weak emitters). Although a num- 29.
Maraschi, L., Ghisellini, G., & Celotti, A., 1992,
ber of different emission properties are References ApJ, 397, L5.
found to characterize these subclasses MCHardy, I. M., Luppino, G. A, George, I. M.,
(see e.g. Giommi et al. 1994), we do Abraham, R. G., & Cooke, B. A, 1992, MN-
Abell, G. 0.,1958, ApJS, 3, 211.
not find systematic differences of envi- Angel, J. R. P., & Stockman, H. S., 1980, RAS, 256, 655.
ronment between the two. ARAA, 18, 321. Metcalfe, N., Shanks, T, Fong, R., & Jones,
Our results are consistent with what Bahcall, N. A. 1981, ApJ, 247, 787. L. R., 1991, MNRAS, 249, 498.
is being found by other similar studies. Blandford, R. D., & Rees, M. J. 1978, in Pitts. Pesce, J. E 1993, PhD Thesis.
Wurtz et al. (1993) and Smith et al. (1995) Conference on BL Lac Objects, ed. A N. Prestage, R. M., & Peacock, J. A, 1988,
have concentrated on X-ray selected BL Wolfe (Univ. of Pitts. Press), 328. MNRAS, 230, 131.
Lac objects while Stickel et al. (1993) and Bregman, J. P., 1990, A&AR, 2, 125. Prestage, R. M., & Peacock, J. A., 1989,
Browne, I. W A 1983, MNRAS, 204, 23. MNRAS, 236, 959.
Fried et al. (1993) have studied some
Butcher, H. R., etal. 1976, ApJ, 209, L11. Schachter, J. F, et al. 1993 ApJ, 412, 541.
of the radio selected BL Lacs. In most Craine, E. R., Tapia, S., & Tarenghi, M., 1975, Smith, E. P., O'Dea, C. P., & Baum, S. A,
cases, the clusters found are relatively Nature, 258, 56. 1995, ApJ, in press.
poor (Abell richness class 0-1) with a few Disney, M. J., 1974, ApJL, 193, L103. Stickel, M., etal. 1991, ApJ, 374,431.
objects in richer environments. Falomo, R., Pesce, J. E., & Treves, A, 1993, Stickel, M., Fried, J. W, & KOhr, H. 1993,
If BL Lacs are aligned versions of low- AJ, 105, 2031. A&AS, 98, 393.
luminosity (F-R I) radio galaxies, it might Falomo, R., Pesce, J. E., & Treves, A 1994, Stocke, J. T, etal. 1991, ApJS, 76, 813.
be expected that Flat Spectrum Radio ApJ Letters, in press. Stone, R. P. S., 1977, ApJ, 218,767.
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1294. Ulrich, M.-H. 1978, ApJ, 222, L3.
the properties of BL Lacs but have strong
Falomo, R., Tanzi, E. G., & Treves, A, 1991, Urry, C. M., Padovani, P., & Stickel, M. 1991,
and broad emission lines, are aligned ex- ApJ, 382, 501.
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amples of high-luminosity (F-R II) radio Fosbury, R. A E., & Disney, M. J., 1976, ApJL, Weistrop, D., etal. 1981, ApJ, 249,3.
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properties of BL Lacs and F-R I galax- 268,53. Yates, M. G., Miller, L., & Peacock, J.A, 1989,
ies with FSRQs and F-R II radio galaxies Giommi, P., et al. 1991, ApJ, 378, 77. MNRAS, 240, 129.

COME-ON+ Adaptive Optics Images of the Pre-Main

Sequence Binary NX Pup
E. TESSIER 1 , J. BOUVIER 2 , J. -L. BEUZIT3,5 and W BRANONER4,5
1 Royal Greenwich Observatory, Cambridge, England; 20bservatoire de Grenoble, Universite Joseph Fourier, France;
30bservatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, France; 4Astronomisches Institut der UniversitEit WtJrzburg, Germany;
5 ESO-La Silla

Introduction procedure that we followed in order to ex- oped in collaboration by the Observatoire
tract the maximum information from the de Paris, ONERA, ESO, Laserdot and
Using adaptive optics (AO) at the ESO AO images. We then discuss the evo- LEP, in combination with the SHARP II
3.6-m telescope, we obtained diffraction lutionary status of the NX Pup system (System for High Angular Resolution Pic-
limited JHK images of the region around on the basis of its IR properties derived tures) camera from the Max-Planck In-
the Herbig AeBe star NX Pup. NX Pup is from the AO images, as well as from the stitute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE).
resolved as a close binary with a sepa- visual photometry and spectroscopy sub- See Beuzit et al. 1994, The Messen-
ration of 0.128 11 (the binary nature of NX sequently obtained at ESO. ger 75, 33 and references therein for
Pup was originally discovered by HST) a description of the CO+ system. The
that we refer to as NX Pup AB; a third AO Observations SHARP II camera is equipped with a
component NX Pup C is found at a dis- Rockwell NICMOS-3 array. The image
tance of 7.0 11 and is classified as a clas- We used the ESO adaptive optics sys- scale was 0.050 11 /pixel giving a field size
sical T Tauri star. We first describe the tem ComeOn+ (CO+), which was devel- of 1311 x 13 11 • We observed NX Pup on

35
 0.4 . 0.40

• .J •
... H ...• J
H

\
0.3 0.30
• K • K
0 0
i=
~ «
a:
-l
I
UJ
a:
f-
0.2

I..
• •
....",ra
••
•
a:
-l
I
UJ
a:
f-
0.20 ...;...........
...
...... ...
(f) (f)

~... ~
0.1
t:~~ ... ...... 0.10
. . . .ift
.iiI'
...
...
...
..
•
... .... ...
Ii. ......
... ..... ~
•
.
0.0
100.0 150.0 200.0
. 250.0
I

300.0
0.00
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
FWHM IN MAS FWHM IN LAMBDAID

Figure 1: Plot of FWHM versus Strehl ratio (SR) for individual images obtained with the Adaptive Optics system Come-On+. The exposure time
was 1s in HK and 20s in J. In K, the FWHM is well stabilized, and always better than 0.18". The scatter in the HK points shows that short
individual images are influenced by the continuous change of the turbulence conditions due to the short coherence time of the turbulence during
that night. For longer exposure times, these effects average out as shown by the small scatter of the three 20 s images in J. Note that the narrower
diffraction core in H allows better FWHM than in K for some images in spite of a lower SR. The same plot is rescaled by ~\/ D on the right
(which is the diffraction limit) to show the relation between FWHM and SR which characterizes AO images. This curve is valid for the Come-On+
experiment.

January 1, 1994 in the J, H, and K bands. PSF could be described as a diffraction- Strehl ratio (SR) for each individual ex-
The total exposure time in each filter was limited core superimposed on a resid- posures of the calibration PSF in JHK.
5 minutes. Immediately after NX Pup, we ual halo with a size corresponding ap- The exposure time was 1 s in HK bands,
observed a reference point source 10' proximatively to the seeing disk. This 20 s in J. We can see that the image in
away (star no. 985 in the HST Guide Star halo comes from the high-order Zernike the K band is very well stabilized, FWHM
Catalogue) later used to measure the in- modes not corrected by the Adaptive Op- being always less than 0.18". In H, the
strumental point spread function (PSF) tics system. The diffraction-limited core SR drops below 10%, a key value below
which is necessary to deconvolve im- may be wider (we can represent this which the correction is much more sensi-
ages; we will refer to it as the calibration by a Gaussian convolution) when errors tive to turbulence effects as shown by the
PSF source. The guide source used by of correction for the low-order Zernike large variations of the FWHM between
the AO system was in both cases the ob- modes are important. The performance 0.13" and 0.25". The distribution of the
served source itself. Since NX Pup is a of an AO system at any wavelength is points in the HK-bands illustrates how
rather bright source (around 6th mag in usually defined by the Strehl ratio (SR). the PSF varies as the turbulence con-
K) and the calibration source is selected The Strehl ratio is the ratio of the ob- ditions continuously change during the
to match the same flux, we obtained se- served PSF maximum to the theoreti- observations. The scatter of the points
ries of short exposures in the Hand K cal diffraction-limited PSF maximum; the depends upon the coherence time of the
band (respectively 0.5 sand 2 s for NX latter is the Airy pattern for a clear cir- turbulence: had the coherence time been
Pup) in order to fall in the linear response cular aperture telescope of diameter D. longer that night, the PSF would have
region of the detector. Because NX Pup When the SR increases, the halo size been much less sensitive to varying tur-
is fainter in J and because of the lower will reduce and its power will move to the bulence conditions. As a rule, the worst
sensitivity of the detector in this wave- diffraction limited core (see Rigaut et al. the turbulence, the less efficient the cor-
length region, the exposure time in J was 1991 ). rection. The PSF variation in response
1 minute in each frame for NX Pup. We Consequently the image obtained is to the changing turbulence is reduced
therefore have a large number of individ- that of the source convolved with the in- with longer exposure times and/or by
ual exposures in the Hand K bands and strumental PSF and image deconvolu- coadding individual images. This is why
we will show below how we can take ad- tion may therefore be needed (particu- the scatter of the 3 images in J is much
vantage of it. larly to clearly access structures super- reduced due to the exposure time of 20 s
imposed on the PSF patterns such as the compared with 1s for the HK bands (see
Characterization of AQ Images first Airy ring or the residual seeing halo). Fig.1).
The PSF may be calibrated on a point When the plot abscissa is rescaled by
Since an AO system partially or fully source in similar seeing conditions. We a factor AID (which corresponds to the
compensates the wavefront distorsions, will talk about a deconvolution procedure diffraction limit at the wavelength A for a
we now have access to imaging with in a next section. telescope of diameter D), points clearly
a point spread function much sharper Figure 1 shows the distribution of the gather along a single curve. As shown
than the seeing disk. The shape of the full width half maximum (FWHM) versus by this curve, the Strehl ratio describes

36
very well the PSF with a SR above 10%
but poorly for lower values. In the latter J H
case, the FWHM will provide additional 0.4
information on the PSF.
This curve is valid for the ComeOn+
experiment and characterizes the PSF
response. Other AO systems may give
0.2
different responses. Anyway, these plots
could be used to define the best strategy
in AO observing. As a rule, the turbu-
u(\)
lence effects get worse as one goes to
shorter wavelengths; consequently, the
C/J
u -0.0
correction and the SR are poorer. How-
'-'
~ N
K
E~
ever, in some cases, by going to shorter
wavelengths one can get higher resolu-
tion in spite of a lower SR; this is because -0.2
the FWHM becomes sharper thanks to
the narrower diffraction core (following a I I
V D law). For example, in the observa- 0.2" 190AU
tion of NX Pup, in terms of FWHM, the -0.4
best individual images are in the H-band
rather than in the K-band (see Fig. 1).

Sharpening Methods for Short- -0.4 -0.2 -0.0 0.2 0.4

Exposure AO Images arcsec
Figure 2: Cleaned images of NX Pup AB obtained in JHK with the Adaptative Optics system
The number of individual exposures
CO+ at the ESO 3.6-m telescope on January 1, 1994. The images were rebinned by a factor
on NX Pup was 5 in J, 150 in H, and of 4, the FWHM of the Gaussian beam is 80 mas (see text for details). The components A and
600 in K for a total exposure time of 300 B (sep. 0.128", PA 63.1°) are clearly resolved. At a distance of 450 pc, 0.128" correspond to
seconds in each filter. a projected separation of 58 AU. The faint feature in the J image north-west of NX Pup A is
A simple coaddition of these individual an artefact from the image deconvolution. A logarithmic gray scale was used. Component Cis
frames yields the final image. However, outside these frames. North is up and east is to the left.
when a large amount of images is avail-
able, it is worth selecting them according
to a Strehl ratio criterium. Also, when a
short exposure time is used, the resid- tions were performed with the 10cailRAF radio astronomers, the (SAA+IS) image
ual tilt is further reduced by applying a package c128 developed by E. Tessier of the source provides the "dirty map",
shift-and-add algorithm (SAA). at the Observatory of Grenoble (avail- while that of the calibration PSF is used
While SAA mostly improves the result- able through anonymous FTP at the site as the "dirty beam". Both maps are
ing FWHM, applying image selection in- hplyot.obspm.fr in the directory /iraLhra). apodized to reject non-physical spatial
creases the final Strehl ratio. However, frequencies beyond the effective cut-off.
the rejection rate of images with poor SR NX Pup AS: CLEANed AO Images Then they are resampled by a factor 4
must be limited in order to preserve a and convolved with a Gaussian beam be-
large enough signal-to-noise ratio in the A simple coaddition of the individual fore running the CLEAN algorithm with a
final image. Table 1 quantitatively shows images allows already to resolve the loop gain of 3%. Because we first try to
the improvement on the calibration PSF NX Pup AB system with a separation of detect close stellar sources and not low-
obtained with image selection (IS) and 0.128"; and this shows how efficient AO level extended structures, it is important
SAA in comparison to the simple coad- imaging is. Nevertheless, even sharper to control the formation of ghost sources
dition of individual frames. The number angular resolution can be reached by ap- and consequently it is better to stop the
of individual exposures on the calibra- plying CLEAN deconvolution to the data. CLEAN process as soon as the level of
tion PSF source was 3 in J, 60 in H, and We briefly describe here the CLEAN al- the negatives in the Cleaned map reach
120 in K for a total exposure time of 60 s gorithm we used (see also Tessier et al. the level of the residues in the residual
in JH and 120 s in K. All these opera- 1993). Using the terms common among map. Usually, for 256 x 256 maps, con-
vergence is reached in less than 500 it-
erations. The Cleaned map is then con-
volved with the same Gaussian beam as
TABLE 1. Sharpening result from short exposure AO images through shift and add (SAA) and
image selection (IS).
used previously and the residuals map is
added to get the final Cleaned image.
J H K As a rule, low-level extended struc-
tures require that we run the CLEAN al-
FWHM 0.214" 0.172" 0.156" gorithm until the noise level is reached.
FWHM (SAA) 0.209// 0.157// 0.147// By the way, Maximum Entropy Methods
FWHM(SAA+IS) - 0.138// 0.143// (MEM) are known to be more efficient
when dealing with extended structures.
SR 3.8% 8.0% 25.1% Another way to study the presence of ex-
SR (SAA) 3.8% 8.6% 27.1% tended structures is via analysis in the
SR (SAA+ IS) - 12.4% 31.0%
Fourier space (see Malbet et al. 1993).
- 20% 40%
From this analysis, NX Pup AB does not
Selection rate (IS)
show any significant deviation from the

37
 -11 II I I I I
I facts connected with some intensity vari-
• NX Pup A ations of the PSF in this region - see
Figure 2). For that reason, we prefer not
.NX Pup B to rely on peak values in the Cleaned im-

o NX Pup C • ages to derive photometry. Instead, the

photometry was performed on the shift-

M1V
• • and-add images using IRAF/DAOPHOT
+
• routines. These routines can be com-
pared with a basic blind deconvolution-
-12 I-
• • • •
- like process using the calibration PSF
only in the first iteration and assuming
the source is a binary, which provides a
very strong constraint. By doing this, we
avoid the calibration PSF problem.

NX Pup C: Off-Axis Sources

and Anisoplanatism
.........
C\l
E -13 -
o - NX Pup C is located 7/f away from NX
o o Pup AB. Since the wavefront correction
~ used NX Pup AB as a guide source, NX
c Pup C is off-axis and image correction
c<: might therefore suffer from anisoplanatic
u.. o
--
effects. Anisoplanatism refers to the case
c< where the distorted wavefront of the ob-
O'l + served source (the astronomical target)
0 + + is different from that of the guide source
used by the AO system. As a result, the
-14 I- -
adaptive correction on the target is de-
EEl + graded. Various types of anisoplanatism
affect current AO systems; some ideas,
such as using multiple laser beacons,
would overcome this limitation (Beckers
et al. 1993). At the moment, CO+ uses
a natural guide star which can be the
o target itself or a nearby star. We briefly
describe below two kinds of anisopla-
-15 I- - natism that might result from this observ-
ing mode: angular anisoplanatism and
temporal anisoplanatism.
+ If we observe an off-axis source, the
telescope is viewing to a direction making
J K an angle e with the direction of the guide
~I B
I I
VI IR I I
I I I I I I I
H
I I I I I source used by the AO instrument. The
light path across the turbulence layers
-6.4 -6.2 -6.0 -5.8 -5.6 and, therefore, the induced phase pertur-
log (A in m) bations are different for the on- and off-
axis sources. The adaptive-optics correc-
Figure 3: Spectral energy distribution /\ FA of NX Pup A and B (VJHK) and C(UBVRIJHK). tion is consequently less efficient for the
For comparison we also show the spectral energy distribution of an M1-type star of the same
off-axis source. This direction-dependent
apparent V magnitude as NX Pup C. Note that the SED is rising towards longer wavelengths for
NX Pup A while the SEDs of NX Pup Band C peak near 1.5 ,1m. All 3 stars exhibit a strong IR
anisoplanatism is usually called angular
excess compared to normal photospheres and NX Pup C also shows an UVexcess. The errors anisoplanatism.
in flux are 5% or less. Because the bandwidth 13 of any AO
instrument transfer function is finite, the
correction applied at the time I is based
on a perturbed wavefront recorded at a
time 1- 51: According to the approxima-
binary model in the HK bands (the quality agreement with the values determined by tion of frozen turbulence, the degradation
of J data is inadequate to confirm this), Bernacca et al. (1993) from HST obser- of the correction is then related to the ra-
consequently no other features are de- vations: 0.126/f ± 0.007/f, 63.4 0 ± 1.0 0 • tio 17 /13, where the wind speed \! of the
tected. The total flux is conserved by the turbulent layers is mainly responsible for
Astrometry of the system was per- CLEAN algorithm. However, though the the continuous change of the perturbed
formed on Cleaned images which are Cleaned PSF has a sharper peak, it is wavefront. This anisoplanatism is usually
shown in Figure 2. The FWHM of the surrounded by a residual pattern made of called temporal anisoplanatism.
Gaussian beam was 80 mas. Residues positive and negative values due to the Observations have recently been car-
in % of the peak value were 8%, 4%, noise and to uncertainties in the calibra- ried out at the ESO 3.6-m telescope
and 1% in JHK, respectively. The sep- tion PSF (incidentally, some features in to study the anisoplanatism, and more
aration of 0.128/f ± 0.008/f and the po- the Cleaned images of NX Pup located observations are scheduled in January
sition angle of 63.1 0 ± 3.5 0 are in good on the first Airy ring are probably arte- 1995 (M. Faucherre, private communi-

38
 TABLE 2. JHK photometry (1.1.1994, ESO 3.6-m/CO+). observed and described by McClure et
al. (1991). In the case of NX Pup, the ex-
Filter NX Pup A NX Pup B NX Pup C
pected direction of elongation for NX Pup
J 8.58 171 9.56 m 11.71'11 C would be at a PA of ~ 45°, i.e. from
H 7.43 m 8.37 m 10.66,n north-east to south west but not in the
K 6.15 m 7.90 m 10.10m east-west direction as observed. Elonga-
tion in another direction can be explained
by temporal anisoplanatism due to the
wind in the dominant turbulent layer (see
Roddier et al. 1993 and Wilson and Jenk-
cation). As long as the final results of planatism, the FWHM of NX Pup C is ins 1994). The prevalent wind direction at
these observations are not available, it systematically wider than for the calibra- La Silla near the ground is north-south,
is therefore difficult to estimate whether tion source in each JHK filter. Moreover, but we do not know the wind direction in
angular anisoplanatism is important un- on the shift-and-add K image, NX PUP the dominant turbulent layer at the time of
der good seeing conditions in the case C appears elongated in the east-west di- our observations. While an off-axis PSF
of NX Pup C, r away from the guide rection (FWHM 0.18" x 0.2r in the N-S should suffer both effects, the on-axis
source NX Pup AB. Because we might and E-W directions, respectively, com- PSF should show pure temporal aniso-
expect some angular anisoplanatism ef- pared to 0.16"x 0.16" for the on-axis planatism. Yet, the on-axis PSF of the
fects (Wilson and Jenkins 1994), we did calibration PSF source). This elongation calibration source does not show any sig-
not try to deconvolve NX Pup C. Another is also observed in the H image but is nificant deviation from circular symme-
reason is that we got a lower signal-to- less significant, and is not seen in the J try. The PSFs of NX Pup A and B com-
noise ratio for NX Pup C. image. puted from the basic blind deconvolution
The first effect of angular anisopla- Such an image elongation can, in prin- (see above) are quite similar to that of
natism is that the Strehl ratio falls off and ciple, result from either angular or tem- the calibration source. Summing up, nei-
the PSF gets wider as the angular dis- poral anisoplanatism (or both). Angular ther angular nor temporal anisoplanatism
tance to the guide star increases: con- anisoplanatism would lead to an elonga- are very likely explanations for the ob-
sequently an off-axis PSF will be less tion of the off-axis PSF in the direction served elongation of NX Pup C, which
sharp. As expected from angular aniso- of the guide source. This effect has been may therefore be real. NX Pup C will

2
5 .'
10 Yf Alexander Opacities
1.5 CM Convection

0.5
0
.....4
...........
.J a
tl.O
0
......
-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5
4 3.9 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.5 3.4
log Teff
Figure 4: Position of NX Pup A, B, and C in the HR-Oiagram. The pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks are from O'Antona and Mazzitel/i (1994).
The solid lines represent isochrones and the zero-age main sequence, the dotted lines are the evolutionary tracks for stars in the mass range
from O. 1 to 2.5 MrD' The positions of NX Pup A, B, and C in this diagram are marked by boxes. For NX Pup A we assume a spectral type A 7-F2,
V= 10.1 171 -10.5 171 , and A v = 0. 171 -0.7 171 (Blondel and Tjin A Ojie 1994). For NX Pup B we assume the same extinction, a spectral type F5-GB
and V = 10.7171 -11.1 171 • The evolutionary status of NX Pup C is better defined, yielding an age around 5 x 10 5 yr and a mass of 0.3 Mr~I' (From
Brandner et al. 1994.)

39
TABLE 3. Equivalent width (in nm) of emission TABLE 4. Evolutionary status of NXPupA, B, and C.
«0) and absorption (>0) lines in the spectra
of NX Pup AB and C (28.1.1994, ESO 1.5-m/ NXPup A B C
B&C; 20.3. 1994, NTT/EMMI).
Sep. - 0.128" ± 0.008" 6.98" ± 0.04"
NX Pup AB C PA - 63.1° ± 3.5° 45.3° ± 0.2°
SpT A7-F2 1 F5-G8 MO.5-M1.5
Her double peaked -2.85 ULo 15-29 9-18 0.45-0.85
01630.0 -0.068 -0.11 Age 5 x 106 yrs 0.3-5 x 106 yrs 5 x 105 yrs
HiJ 0.25 -0.58
H~I 0.53 -0.17 j Brand et al. 1983, Reipurth 1983, Blondel & Tjin A Djie 1994,
Li 1670.8 - 0.054

need to be re-observed and at the same Spectra of NX Pup C and NX Pup AB Beuzit J.-L. et al., The Messenger, 75, p. 33.
time, anisoplanatism should be quanti- were obtained on March 20,1994 with the Brand P.W.J.L., Hawarden T.G., Longmore
tavely studied. ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI) at- A.J., Williams P.M., Caldwell JAR., 1983,
tached to the NTT. Table 3 lists the main MNRAS, 203, p. 215.
Henkel 1989, The Messenger, 57, p. 8.
features present in the spectra. The pres-
Irvine N.J., 1975, PASP, 87, p. 87.
The Evolutionary Status of the NX ence of the strong Ha emission (EW =
Malbet F., Lena P., Bertout C., 1993, A&A, 271,
Pup System 2.85 nm) and the Li 1670.8 nm absorption L9.
make NX Pup C a bona fide classical T Mc Lure R.D., Arnaud J., Murray Fletcher J.,
NX Pup is located at the edge of CG1, Tauri stars. Nieto J. and Racine R., 1991, PASP, 103,
a Cometary Globule in the Gum Nebula Finally, we inferred from these results p.570-575.
(see e.g. Henkel 1989, The Messenger the luminosity and effective temperature Reipurth B., 1983, A&A, 117, p. 183.
57, 8), which is suspected to have been of each star. Figure 4 locates NX Pup Reipurth B., Pettersson B., 1993, A&A, 267,
a region of star formation for more than A, B, and C in the HR diagram within p.439.
Rigaut F., Rousset G., Kern P., Fontanella J.-
106 years (e.g. Reipurth and Petterson observational uncertainties. PMS evolu-
C., Gaffard J.P., Merkle F., Lena P., 1991,
1993). tionary tracks from D'Antona and Mazzi-
A&A, 250, p. 280.
NX Pup, a Herbig AeBe star (Irvine telli (1994) are overplotted. Table 4 sum-
Roddier F., Northcott M.J., Graves J.E.,
1975) was also resolved as a close marizes the evolutionary status of the McKenna D.L., Roddier D., 1993, J. Opt.
binary with a separation of 0.126" NX Pup system. Since the projected dis- Soc. Am. A, Vol. 10, p. 957.-965
by Bernacca et al. (1993) using data tance between NX Pup C and NX Pup Sterken et al. 1995, in preparation.
from the Fine Guidance Sensor system AB is 3150 AU, it is likely that NX Pup C Tessier E., 1993, Thesis, University of Paris 6.
aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. is not physically bound to NX Pup AB. On Tessier E., Bouvier J., Lacombe F., 1994, A&A,
Thus all previous evolutionary interpreta- the other hand, we have clear evidence 283, p. 827.
tions should be reevaluated as the total that NX Pup C is a pre-main sequence Wilson R. and Jenkins C., 1994, MNRAS in
observed luminosity in fact comes from star. Furthermore it is the only other PMS preparation.
at least two stars. within a 2.5' x 2.5' field around NX Pup.
CO+ observations in JHK have easily Therefore, the three stars could quite
resolved the NX Pup system, thus allow- well form a hierarchical triple system. The
ing us to estimate the flux contribution of identification of NX Pup C as a classical
each of the components of the system T Tauri star provides the first evidence for
in the infrared. In addition, we used on low-mass star formation in CG 1.
January 8, 1994 the optical CCD cam-
era at the Danish 1.5-m telescope at La Acknowledgements
Silla and complemented the IR observa-
tions by getting UBVR, Gunn I and Ho' Discussions with C. Jenkins and R.
photometry for NX Pup AB (unresolved) Wilson are gratefully acknowledged. We
as well as for NX Pup C that we iden- thank P.S. The and C. Sterken for pro-
tify as a low-mass classical T Tauri star. viding us with LPTV measurements prior
Additional photometric measurements of to publication and A. Tokovinine for
NX Pup were obtained in the course of providing us some IRAF scripts using
the LPTV programme at the Danish 50- DAOPHOT. W. Brandner was supported
cm Stromgren Automatic Telescope (P.S. by a student fellowship of the European
The, private communication, Sterken et Southern Observatory.
al. 1995, in preparation).
NX Pup AB and NX Pup C both show a
strong excess of Ha emission compared References
to normal stars included in the same op-
tical images. From the location of these Brandner w., Bouvier J., Grebel E.K., Tessier
stars in colour-colour J-H vs H-K and E., de Winter D. and Beuzit J.-L., 1994, A&A
V-K vs H-K diagrams we can conclude submitted.
Beckers J. M., 1993, ARAA, Vol. 31.
that NX Pup A belongs to the group of
Bernacca P.L., Lattanzi M.G., Bucciarelli B.,
Herbig AeBe stars. All three stars show Bastian U., Barbaro G., Pannunzio R., Badi-
an intrinsic IR excess. The IR excess is ali M., Cardini D., Emanuele A., 1993, A&A,
clearly apparent in the spectral energy 278, L47.
distributions of the 3 stars plotted in Fig- Blondel P.F.C., Tjin A Djie, H.R.E. 1994, ASP
ure 3. ConI. Ser. 62, 211.

40
Observations of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect
Towards ROSAT Clusters with SEST and the
Italian Double-Channel Photometer
P ANDREANP, H. BOHRINGER2 , R. BOOTH 3 , G. DALL'OGLlO4, L.-A. NYMAN 5 , L. PIZZQE;,
P SHAVER?, N. WHYBORN 3
1 Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universita di Padova, Italy; 2 Max-Planck-Institut fUr Astrophysik, Garching, Germany;
30NSALA Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden; 4 Dipartimento di Fisica, III Universita di Roma, Italy;
5 ESO-La Silla, Chile; 6/stituto TESRE, Bologna, Italy; 7 ESO-Garching, Germany

Scientific Aims A2163 (Wilbanks et aI., 1994). However, and 2 millimetres with bandwidth 350 and
a more definitive detection of the S-Z ef- 560 pm respectively. The central wave-
A double-channel (1.2 and 2 mm) pho- fect requires the measurement of both lengths have been chosen to match the
tometer has been installed at the focus of the decrement and the enhancement. In atmospheric transmission windows and
the SEST antenna to perform measure- order to minimize systematic errors and to maximize the ratio between the ex-
ments of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect to eliminate spurious signals, simultane- pected signal from the S-Z effect and
towards X-ray ROSAT clusters. Here we ous detections of the decrement and en- that from the atmosphere, Isz/latm. Note
report the performance of the instrument hancement are mandatory. that the 2 mm band includes the peak
and the first results obtained during the The Italian group of the III University brightness of the decrement in the S-
August-September 1994 observing run. of Rome have therefore built a photome- Z effect: f::,J ~ -56.3 y Jy (or in tem-
The Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (Sun- ter with two channels centred at 1.2 and perature: f::,.T ~ -2.53 y K), while in the
yaev and Zeldovich, 1972) is a shift 2 mm to feed the O.A.S.1. (Osservato- 1.2 mm band we expect a positive signal
of the Cosmic Microwave Background rio Antartico Submillimetrico Infrarosso) of ~ + 32.3 y Jy (or f::,.T ~ + 1.33 y K),
spectrum by the inverse Compton scat- telescope installed at the Italian base where y is the Comptonization parameter
tering of microwave photons by the hot in Antarctica (Dall'Oglio et aI., 1992). depending on the electron gas temper-
electron gas present in rich clusters This photometer has been adapted to be ature and density. It ranges between 2
of galaxies. The resulting cluster sig- placed at the focus of the SEST antenna and 6 10- 1 for the chosen clusters. More
nal shows a decrement at wavelengths in Chile. details on the characteristics of the pho-
longer than 1.4 mm and an enhancement tometer and the refrigerator system can
at shorter ones relative to its planck- The Instrument be found in Pizzo et al. (1994a, 1994b).
ian value. After many attempts to de- Before installing the photometer in the
tect this effect (see e.g. the review pa- The photometer uses two Si- receiver cabin, we measured the r.m.s.
per Birkinshaw, 1990) radio observations bolometers cooled at 300 mK by means values of the responsivities (the detec-
seem finally to show the expected decre- of a single stage 2, He refrigerator. They tor output signals in Volts per degree
ment at centimetre wavelengths towards are located inside the cryostat orthogo- Kelvin or per Watts falling onto the de-
A2218, A665, 0016+ 16 and A773 (Birkin- nal to each other. With this configuration tectors): we find 5.9 pV/K (or 210 7 VIW)
shaw, 1991; Klein et aI., 1991; Jones the radiation coming from the telescope at 1.2 mm and 2.8 p V/K (or 3.8 107 VIW)
et aI., 1993; Grainge et aI., 1993) and is split by a dichroic mirror (beam-splitter) at 2 mm. The noise equivalent tempera-
more recently even at 2.2 mm towards onto two interference filters centred at 1.2 tures (NET., i.e. the brightness temper-

SATURN SCAN 2316 RX 2 SATURN SCAN 2316 RX 2

00° 02' 1-4--+--+-+---+-+-t--t--t------I 00° 02' 1---+-+---+--+---+--1----1--+--+---1

00° 00' 1---+-+---\1 00° 00' I---+-+---I

-00° 02' f-4--t--t-+--+-+-t--t--t------I -00° 02'

Figure 1: The raster map on Saturn of the (left) 1.2 rnrn channel and (right) 2 rnrn channel. From the map the HPBW of the beam turns out to be
44" and 46" at 1.2 and 2 mm respectively. Beams are aligned within 3" .

41
 therefore the beams at the two different
frequencies are comparable. We have
( .....,\ set the chop throw in order to have a
51077 beam separation in the sky of 135/1.

(0)
\ .. ~ .........'
The detector noise in the receiver
cabin turned out to be twice as large as
that measured in the laboratory. In par-
ticular, because of its mounting inside
the cryostat, the 2 mm channel suffered
microphonics very likely caused by vi-
..... brations of the mechanical devices cool-
I
,,' • j ing the heterodyne receivers. In order to
"
:"..... measure the N.E.T.s, sky noise and re-
sponsivities must be evaluated: the for-
("-'\ mer is obtained during each night by
...... _.~) looking at blank sky, the latter with cal-
ibration on planets. The average values
.', of the N.E.T. measured at the focus were
.\ ......
28 and 70 mK/~, i.e. 14 and 35 mK
~ .......i in one second integration time. To com-
.. -'
pare these values with those expected
from the effect we have estimated, the
magnitude of the latter by convolving
I::>.T = T y (:rcoth(x/2) - 4) K (T is the
CMB temperature, :D = lw/kT and y =
I kTe/mc 2 /?'e(JTd€ is the comptonization
parameter, /?e, T e being the electron den-
10 arCffim sity and temperature) with the spectral fil-
ter response, the atmospheric transmis-
sion and the cluster core radius. We find:
I::>.T ~ 1.3y K, 1::>.1' ~-2.7y K at 1.2and
2 mm respectively. For a typical cluster in
Figure 2: The ROSAT all-sky survey image of 51077. The central beam (5) and the reference
beams (A and B) are shown as filled circles superposed on the X-ray isophotes.
our list we estimate a comptonization pa-
rameter of y ~ 4 10- 4 , therefore we get
I::>.T ~ 0.5 mK and I::>.T ~-1.1 mI( at 1.2
and 2 mm respectively. This means that
3(]" values can be reached in 2+3 hours
ature producing a signal with a signal-to- amplifiers. The analogue outputs from with the present instrumentation.
noise ratio of 1) are: 4.2 and 9 mK/~ the lock-in amplifiers are measured in
at 1.2 and 2 mm respectively. Since we a DI-200 data-acquisition system which Observations of X-Ray Clusters
expect a cluster signal of the order of 1 is controlled by a 80386 PC through a A2744, 51077 and 5295
mK (see above), this means that in prin- parallel port. The programme uses the
ciple to get a 1(]" value of 1 mK we have serial port COM1 to read the data from Candidate sources were selected from
to integrate for 5 and 20 seconds at 1.2 the antenna HP control computer. The the ROSAT southern clusters according
and 2 mm respectively. data-acquisition programme was imple- to the following prescriptions: (a) high X-
The coupling between the optics of the mented by Angel Otarola of the SEST ray luminosity and (b) redshift larger than
telescope and that of the photometer is team at La Silla. 0.25. This choice matches the two fun-
provided by a PTFE lens converting the damental requirements: a small appar-
F/d = 5.1 beam from SEST to the F/d = Measured Performance ent angular dimension of the cluster core
4.3 configuration of the photometer. The and a large Comptonization parameter.
lens focal length of 570 mm gives the op- We used the dual-beam mapping pro· The cluster angular dimensions should
timum coupling at both 2 mm and 1.2 mm gramme adapted by Roland Lemke for not largely exceed the instrument beam
and it is fixed on the cryostat window. The the two-channel photometer to perform width and they must be smaller than the
lens was designed and built at Onsala. raster scans on planets. These scans maximum chop throw otherwise the am-
The electronic chain consists of a provide a measurement of the beam plitude of the signal cannot be correctly
preamplifier and a variable gain amplifier shapes and dimensions and the beam estimated. A large y parameter enhances
for each detector. The signal from each separation in the sky. Figure 1 shows the amplitude of the effect and therefore
channel is fed to two separate acquisition the two-dimensional appearance of the its detectability. Figure 2 shows super-
systems: (a) by means of a two-channel beams of the two channels. As it is clear posed to the X-ray map of S1077 the
Voltage-to-frequency converter, the out- from the figure, the beams are symmetric location of the main beam (at the cen-
puts from the variable gain amplifiers are around the optical axis. Planet scans at tre) with the reference beams (position A
integrated with counters and stored on the two wavelengths overlap well (within and B). Beam switching + nodding pro-
the HP computer controlling the antenna. 3/1), indicating the good alignment of the vides the real-time comparison between
The acquisition software has been modi- two beams. The Half Power Beam Width the emission from the cluster centre and
fied by Roland Lemke of the SEST team turns out to be 44 and 46/1 at 1.2 and that from the reference beams A and B.
in La Silla in order to store the two outputs 2 mm respectively as we expect from The effect we are looking for is very
of our photometer. (b) The secondary the dimensions of the Winston cone en- weak. We have therefore to check care-
outputs from the variable gain amplifiers trance. Note that we are not working fully all the systematics which could affect
are fed to Stanford Research Lock-In in a diffraction limited configuration and the measurements. Spill-over from the

42
ground, difference in temperature from obtained towards the clusters A2744, son, Roland Lemke and Angel Otarola
one side to the other of the main mirror S1077 and S295. Careful data analysis is for their fundamental help and assistance
and other effects could certainly plague in progress: the real signal will be com- during the observations. We are very
the observations. Since it is hard to iden- pared with a template one obtained by grateful to the ESO Workshop team at
tify and quantify each effect, we have simulating the observational setup on the La Silla, which was of great help during
measured them according to the follow- X-ray map of the source. A rough anal- the photometer setup.
ing observing strategy: each source was ysis gives some preliminary positive re-
integrated over time chunks of 600 s, this sults: we find a 30" value for the decre-
time interval plus the needed overheads ment towards S1077 of -2.5±0.8 mK.
gives a total tracking time on the source This result makes us confident that with
of 15 minutes. The same time was spent some improvements and the acquired References
on a blank sky located with equatorial co- knowledge of the system a next observ- Birkinshaw M., 1991, in Physical Cosmology,
ordinates 15 minutes larger in right as- ing run will be successful in detecting the ed. A.Blanchard et al. (Gif-sur-Yvette: Edi-
cension. This means that the antenna effect. We foresee changing the bolome- tions Frontieres), 177.
tracks twice the same sky position in hor- ter mounting by building a more robust Oall'Oglio G. et aI., 1992, Exp. Astran., 2/5,
izontal coordinates: once ON the source cryostat and a different adapter. Both im- 256.
and the second time on the reference provements will damp vibrations in the Jones M. et aI., 1993, Nature 365, 322.
blank sky position. This enables us to receiver cabin thus largely reducing mi- Pizzo L. and Oall'Oglio G., 1994a, preprint.
compare the two different measurements crophonics and enhancing the detector Pizzo L., Andreani P., Oall'Oglio G., Lemke
R., Otarola A. and Whyborn N., 1994b, Exp.
and eliminate the spurious signals. sensitivity.
Astr., submitted.
Because of the time spent for in- Sunyaev RA and Zeldovich YaB., 1972,
stallation and tests and that lost due Acknowledgements Comm. Astraphy. Space Phys., 4, 173.
to bad weather, the number of useful Wilbanks T.M., Ade PAR., Fischer M.L.,
observations in our August-September We would like to warmly thank the Holzapfel W.L. and Lange A.E., 1994, ApJ
run was small. Some observations were SEST team and in particular Glenn Pers- 427, L75.

43
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observatory, radio, optical, infrared, tele- cally fetches a copy from the master, and
The Internet has succeeded - and scope, database or software. formats a local rendition of the AstroWeb
with it the World Wide Web. This model The AstroWeb database is actually a database.
of hypertext information with embedded distributed system of databases main- Each site offers the AstroWeb data-
pictures and hyperlinks to other local tained at five different sites (CDS, base in a different style of presentation.
or remote information pages - as well MSSSO, NRAO, ST-ECF, and STScl) The ST-ECF rendition, for instance, is
as to other Internet services - greatly on three continents. The master copy is terse and suitable for quick reference,
facilitates public near-realtime participa- currently kept at the Space Telescope whereas the STScl or NRAO renditions
tion of astronomical events, such as the Science Institute, Baltimore. There the are more verbose and particularly suit-
observations of the Shoemaker-Levy-9 aliveness of all URLs (except of Tel- able for browsing. Some sites even offer
comet crash on Jupiter (Murtagh & Fendt net records) is verified three times a more than one rendition for the conve-
1994, West 1994, Whitehouse 1994). day, and "unreliable" or "dead" URLs are nience of the users.
The World Wide Web, or WWW for short,
is also increasingly used for scientific
communication and information dissemi-
nation in all natural sciences, and astron-
omy is one of the most active communi-
ties in this respect. File Qptions !:!.avigate Annotate !J.elp
With the success of the Internet, a
Document Title: iA$;'tt:.Owe
mechanism better than individual "hot-
lists" for organizing useful collections of
Document URL:
astronomical Internet resources is clearly
needed. This is where the "AstroWeb"
database (Adorf et al. 1994, Jackson
et al. 1994, 1995a, b) enters. It aims
at being the most complete and use-
ful on-line collection of Uniform Re- AstroWeb: Astronomy/Astrophysics on
source Locators (URLs) for astronomi-
cal Internet resources, pointing to enti-
the Internet
ties as diverse as societies, observato- This collection of pointers to astronomically relevant information available on the
ries, databases, preprint servers, tele- Internet is maintained by the AstroWeb Consortium, which will be pleased to accept
scopes, telescope schedules, weather contributions of new resources, as well as reports of corrections to existing records.
information or individual astronomers. As In addition to classified lists of resource records, the Consortium also prOVides a
such the AstroWeb database comple-
utillty to search the AstroWeb database: Vi
ments the recent annotated compilation
of astronomical Internet resources (An-
Three times aday, most of the URL 's are validated to verify aliveness (see
dernach, Hanisch & Murtagh 1994).
"AstroWeb Dead URLs" and "AstroWeb Unreliable URLs'). These ST-ECF
AstroWeb pages are updated at about 10:30 UT each day, if the master database has
Organization changed.

The AstroWeb database, which is Neither ST-ECF nor the AstroWeb Consortium has any control over the contents or
maintained by the "AstroWeb Consor- the availability of the information located at other Internet sites.
tium", currently comprises more than
1100 records of FTP, Gopher, Telnet, The AstroWeb master database currently contains 1179 distinct resource records:
News, WAIS and WWW resources. Each
record minimally consists of a headline • Publication-related Resources
and an associated URL. Many records
o Preprint Lists (54 records)
o Abstracts (35 records)
are augmented by a paragraph of de- 1I;;;;:====!Gl RIhll"",rgnhl"g! <:.. r.~,I('I><L~!oi!r.~~£...!';r,=~~~orr~n~"===========:::!P'!J I
scriptive text. If known, the e-mail ad-
dress of the resource's maintainer is
stored along with the record. As added
value, the AstroWeb consortium has Figure 1: View of the top-level page of the AstroWeb database at the ST-ECF. Hyperlinks to
classified each record according to one forms for entering new records, and for error corrections are provided.

44
Figure 2: The list of "telescope schedules"
accessible from the AstroWeb information
pages.

Accessing the AstroWeb

Database
The natural place for offering the As-
troWeb database is the WWw. The ST-
ECF rendition can be accessed either
through hyperlinks originating from the
ESO web (http://www.hq.eso.org/eso-
homepage.html), or from the ST-ECF
web (http://ecf.hq.eso.org/), or directly
via the "yellow pages" URL
http://ecf.hq.eso.org/astroweb/yp_astro_
resources.html (Fig. 1), from where links
to the other AstroWeb renderings are
provided. The AstroWeb database is an
excellent starting point for browsing top-
ics on the astronomical Internet (Figs.
2 and 3), as well as for finding other
resources of potential interest to as-
tronomers.
At a size of well over 1000 records, it
is mandatory that the database is also
searchable. To this end one may use
the simple text matching facility built into
most, if not all, WWW clients. A more
powerful search mechanism, however,
is offered by the AstroWeb WAIS in-
dex, which can be queried using natu-
ral (English) language from all AstroWeb
sites. Since complete records are in-
dexed, queries may include categories
and URLs, which are usually hidden in
HTML-comments. The results are re-
turned as WWW-pages with ready-to-
use hyperlinks to interesting resources
found.

Submission of New Records

The AstroWeb Consortium, consisting
of the authors above, welcomes sub-
missions of new records from the astro-
nomical community; WWW forms have
been put in place to facilitate this pro-
cess. Submissions are reviewed by Con-
sortium members and entered manually
into the database to ensure a minimum
quality. Those recent submissions not yet
entered into the main database may be
viewed (and used).
The Consortium also encourages cor-
rections to existing records (e.g. via e-
mail to [email protected]). AstroWeb
Consortium members can globally edit
the database, in order to better respond
to change requests.

Figure 3: Portion of the "abstracts" resource

listing in the AstroWeb database.

45
Possible Future Steps mous FTP servers. Such a project is by Jackson, R., Wells, D., Adort, H.-M., Egret,
no means out of question. In fact, gen- D., Heck, A., Koekemoer, A., Murtagh, F.:
After a rapid growth, the AstroWeb eral indices spanning the whole WWW 1995a, "AstroWeb - A database of links to
is currently being consolidated. It is already exist, but none thus far is spe- astronomy resources - Announcement of a
hoped that, with the help of the as- database", Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 108,
cific to astronomy.
tronomical community, the degree of 235-236.
Jackson, R.E., Adort, H.-M., Egret, D., Heck,
completeness and quality of the As-
A., Koekemoer, A., Murtagh, F., Wells, D.:
troWeb database can be further im-
References 1995b, "AstroWeb - Internet resources for
proved. Certainly, database internal astronomers", in: Proc. Astronomical Data
cross-referencing within the descriptive Adort, H.-M., Egret, D., Heck, A., Jackson, Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS)
paragraphs is far from complete. Here R., Koekemoer, A., Murtagh, F., Wells, 1994, Baltimore, MD, D. Shaw, H. Payne,
the situation can presumably be reme- D.: 1994, "AstroWeb - Internet resources and J. Hayes (eds.), Astronomical Society
died with an appropriate software tool. for astronomers", ST-ECF Newsl. 22, (in of the Pacific, (in press).
In the future the AstroWeb database press). Murtagh, F., Fendt, M.: 1994, "The SL-9/ESO
Andernach, H., Hanisch, R.J., Murtagh, F.D.: Web Encounter", ESO Messenger 77,47.
might be used as a starting base for
1994, "Network resources for astronomers", West, R.: 1994, "Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
indexing all astronomical WWW pages Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific, (in press). Collides with Jupiter", ESO Messenger 77,
out on the Internet. This would involve Jackson, R., Wells, D., Adorf, H.-M., Egret, 28-31.
a "robot" repeatedly fetching all relevant D., Heck, A., Koekemoer, A., Murtagh, F.: Whitehouse, K.: 1994, "Comet Explodes on
HTML pages, similarly to how Archie in- 1994, "The AstroWeb Database", Bull. COS Jupiter - and the Web", IEEE Computer
dexes all files in all registered anony- 45,21-25. Graphics and Applications, Nov. 94, 12-13.

Producing Multi-Wavelength Overlays with MIDAS

M. PIERRE, CEAlOSMIOAPNIA CE Saclay, France, and
Max-Planck-Institut fUr Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany

Astronomy is no longer solely a sci- sumed to be tangential within the overlay using the command GET / CUHSOH after
ence where data obtained in different field. the final overlay has been displayed on
wavelength ranges are analysed sepa- - The radio images were initially re- the screen. We now describe briefly how
rately. Astronomers are becoming more duced with the AlPS package, using ~ each image was processed to reach this
and more involved in combined multi- 15" (not square) pixels, in a SIN projec- stage.
wavelength programmes (optical, radio, tion (B1950). In order to match the X-ray - For the purpose of aligning opti-
IUE, ROSAT and soon ISO ...) for which data, the radio images are in turn regrid- cal images, telescope coordinates are
basic coordinates transformation facili- ded into J 2000 and tangential projection not accurate enough, and thus reference
ties constitute the starting point for any using AlPS. stars are needed. As the GSC does not
further data analysis. This contribution - The accurate sky projection of the provide enough objects on such a small
describes the method used for mak- optical images is undefined. We stress field at high galactic latitude, and most
ing the optical/X-ray/radio overlays, pre- here that, for our purpose, CCD images objects are too bright and saturated on
sented in the preceding article "Multi- are essential (rather than Schmidt plate the CCD image, we make use of the
wavelength study of ROSAT clusters of scans) to provide a detailed description general COSMOS object catalogue. The
galaxies". of the galaxy distribution of our distant figure presents a finding chart produced
For each cluster, we have at our dis- clusters. by the NRL/ROE package available at
posal ESO 3.6-m EFOSC R images (~ - The MIDAS (EXSAS) and AlPS im- MPE. The brightest stars are referenced
41 x 61 : scale: 0.6"/pixel), ROSAT sur- age header information regarding ab- with numbers, their coordinates are listed
vey images ( ~ 1 sq. degree, resolution: solute coordinates, centre of projection, on the right-hand side of the figure, and
~ 2 ), MOST images (70 x 70' cosec(S),
1 1
etc., are incompatible. a corresponding ASCII list is simultane-
resolution: 43" x 43" cosec(S); we thus We therefore wrote a series of MI- ously produced by the programme; this
adopted a final layout where the X-ray DAS procedures to cope with the lack of file is then transformed into a MIDAS
and radio contours are superimposed coherence between the systems, know- table (TA). In a second step, the CCD
onto the optical pixel image. The latter ing that without proper regridding pro- image is displayed on the screen and
determines the final overlay size. grammes it is not possible to have ex- pixel coordinates of reference stars (at
Because of the very different pro- act coincidence between the three wave- least 5), well distributed over the whole
cesses by which these images are ob- lengths. The method is based on the fact field, are interactively determined using
tained, the production of the overlays is a that after the processing, overlays (which the command CENTER/GAUSS with a ta-
long and tedious procedure, all the more cover a small area) will have as "world co- ble as output option (TB); selected stars
so since no reg ridding programmes are ordinates" true coordinates, i.e. RA and are given the same identifier as in the
available in MIDAS, nor are there com- Dec in decimal degrees aligned with the COSMOS list. Then the two tables, TA
mands for converting pixel coordinates X and Y axes respectively (owing to the (celestial coordinates) and TB (pixel co-
into celestial. To summarize the starting radio and X-ray resolutions, a minimal 211 ordinates), are compared with the com-
situation: accuracy for the three wavelengths is re- mand ALIGN/IMAGE letting all param-
- X-ray ROSAT survey images are quired over a 5' x 5' field). This not only eters free (i.e. rotation angle, X and Y
routinely obtained by the EXSAS pack- a tractable way to treat the unknown dis- scale factors, X and Y translations). In
age (MPE) in a J 2000 system, using tortions of the optical image, but also en- this way, the image is stretched in all
25 11 pixels; the sky projection can be as- ables us to get object positions directly directions so that the residuals for the

46
 ROSAl Identification ROSAT / MPE / RSDC 27-0CT-94 09:20:28 in : PRG7.MOS;1
Survey UKST lIIaJ . ROE/NRL Finding Chart out: prg7.ps
Field No. 381 Plate Epoch: 1976.41 00
ROSAT Source Name: 000001RX J1236. 7-335

ROSAT Position: 12 36 41. 9 -33 54 46 Error radii: 1 sig = 40.8, 1.645 sig = 67.2, 2 sig = 81.7, 3 sig =122.5 arcsec

+ Steliar Gaiaxy Faint

Blend cD Unknown
Spiral
CLASS B R.A. Dec. DIST.
+ + 01 Stellar 10.84 12 36 52.9 -33 54 26 138.8
+.
+ 02 Stellar 1l.59 12 36 41.1 -33 55 31 46.4
+ 03 Stellar 13.91 12 36 51. 7 -33 52 43 173.6
-33 52 00 + + 03' :!" 04 Stellar 14.82 12 36 28.1 -33 55 26 176.7
+ 05 Stellar 14.86 12 36 38.0 -33 52 41 133.6
-j10 -¥o+
+ +
+~: 06
07
Stellar
Stellar
15.26
15.36
12
12
36 36.7
36 31.1
-33
-33
54
56
44
58
65.4
189.2
{i5 + +
08 Stellar 15.53 12 36 39.9 -33 53 57 54.7
-33 53 00 + + 09 Stellar 15.99 12 3641.7 -33 57 02 135.7
-jl5 10 Stellar 16.03 12 36 43.4 -33 52 20 147.3
.j16
-j13 + II Stellar 16.09 12 36 43.1 -33 57 41 175.2
+ 12 Stellar 16.16 12 36 43.9 -33 57 54 189.7
Ul .+
13 Stellar 16.34 12 36 43.8 -33 53 29 80.5
Q)
-33 54 00 +40 .j13+ +' 14 Stellar 16.47 12 36 49.6 -33 55 33 106.2
...Q) + 15 Stellar 16.53 12 3645.0 -33 53 08 105.5

~
Ol 16 Stellar 16.59 12 36 41.9 -33 54 06 40.5
Q) + 17 Stellar 16.68 12 36 55.4 -33 53 46 178.3
X 18 Stellar 16.68 12 36 54.1 -33 54 54 151.7
0 -33 55 00 +
-jl8
+ 19 Stellar 16.91 12 36 28.6 -33 53 55 173.5
20 Stellar 17.24 12 36 29.9 -33 52 24 205.7
21 Stellar 17 .26 12 36 49.2 -33 57 18 177.2
0 -jl4
-¥ 22 Stellar 17 .45 12 36 47.0 -33 55 53 92.2
Q)
23 Stellar 17.47 12 36 50.9 -33 54 03 119.4
0 -33 56 00 + + + + + 24 Stellar 17.61 12 36 47.6 -33 55 33 85.1
+ 25 Stellar 17.65 12 3650.4 -33 56 52 164.6
+ 26 Stellar 17 .82 12 36 51. 2 -33 53 16 146.4
+ -tJl ~ 27 Stellar 17.97 12 36 28.7 -33 55 13 166.3
~O+25 + + + 28 Stellar 18.01 12 36 26.1 -33 54 37 196.5
-33 57 00 ++ +09 .j!.' 29 Stellar 18.05 12 36 49.7 -33 57 II 174.4
-i!'
+ *~l +
++ + 30
31
Stellar
Stellar
18.18
18.26
12
12
36 51. 7
36 44.6
-33
-33
56
56
49
36
172.9
114.7
+ +
-j1! 32 Stellar 18.34 12 36 34.9 -33 51 57 190.2
+

. +
+ -j!2 + + 33 Stellar 18.38 12 36 26.3 -33 55 10 195.5
-33 58 00 34 Stellar 18.38 12 36 25.4 -33 55 13 207.6
+ +
35 Stellar 18.43 12 36 32.0 -33 52 28 185.2
,,~.
~
~ ~t::J.
~
~ .
~ 36
37
Stellar
Stellar
18.61
18.65
12
12
36 41.0
36 35.5
-33
-33
54
57
10
08
38.1
163.1
• '?
'?
-,.'). -,.').'? -,.').'? 38 Stellar 18.86 12 3642.4 -33 52 47 118.7
39 Stellar 18.93 12 36 38.1 -33 54 23 53.1
40 Stellar 19.01 12 36 58.1 -33 54 07 205.8
R.A. (Hours)
Selection criterion: bright stellar objects

Example of a ROEINRUMPE finding chart (Abell 700) used in the alignment of the optical CCO images. Galaxies are plotted as grey ellipses
and stars with crosses. The ROSAT centroid (x) and the 90% error circle are also indicated.

reference stars are minimized. The ob- - The X-ray image has world coordi- which is fully within the above accuracy
tained transformation parameters finally nates in unit of 0.5" (coordinates 0,0 at requirements.
enable us to rebin the image into RA, Dec the field centre) but possesses in its de- - The AlPS descriptors of the radio
via the command REBUT/ROTATE. A last scriptor the coordinates of centre of the image provide in principle accurate infor-
check, using COSMOS reference stars projection (POINT_LONG, POINLLAT). mation as to the celestial coordinates of
not involved in the determination of the This is used by the EXSAS command any pixel; however, there is no way to
transformation, shows that a 1" accuracy TEANSFOEM/COOEDINATES to convert handle them easily with the current MI-
is reached - which is actually the nomi- pixel coordinates into celestial coordi- DAS commands. Therefore, we adopted
nal precision of the COSMOS positions. nates; the X and Y axes are aligned the following steps. The RA, Dec of the
We must stress that we have encoun- along the RA and Dec directions. With projection centre (C) of the image can be
tered a difficulty due to the output format the aim of introducing celestial coordi- determined by simple linear equations:
of the command CENTER/GAUSS: only 6 nates as world coordinates to match the RA = START(x) + NPIX(x)/2*STEP(x),
digits are available. This means that for optical image, we determine the equa- Dec = START(y) + NPIX(y)/2*STEP(y),
the final check, as image coordinates are torial coordinates of two reference pix- but this is not true for any other pixel.
now equatorial, it is not possible to reach els (usually the centre C and a 2nd point Thus, to have a scale compatible with the
arcsec accuracy (e.g. we get in output: A about 2 1 off the centre). This provides optical image and assuming again that
RA = 156.342). We overcame this dif- unique pixel transformation equations, (i, projection effects are negligible, we set:
ficulty (which is just an output problem, j)--t (RA, Dec), assuming that all over the STEP(x) =STEP(x)_old*cos(Dec(C)) and
the computed START and STEP descrip- field: (1) projection effects are negligible STEP(y) = STEP(y)_old. This finally en-
tor values being in double precision) and (2) STEP(x) = STEP(y)*cos(Dec(C)). ables us to reset the START values ade-
by temporarily subtracting the integer Descriptor START and STEP values are quately. Checking with AlPS point source
part of the START value in the descrip- consequently modified to yield world co- positions over a large field gives sat-
tor (e.g. this time CENTER/GAUSS will ordinates in decimal degrees. In this new isfactory accuracy (comparable to that
give 0.3423). We recommend that, in coordinate system, RA and Dec are ex- reached in the X-ray band).
future, this command (as well as act for point C and all points located on The procedure described above pro-
GET /CURSOE) works in double preci- the cercle (C,A). At a distance of 10 1 vides the desired positional accuracy
sion, which seems to be logical, consid- from the centre we have computed a 211 for the proposed scientific goals. How-
ering that the START and STEP descrip- discrepancy with the new coordinates, ever, one can easily imagine cases for
tors of the image header are double pre- and the true ones are provided by the which comparable accuracy will be re-
cision numbers. command TEANSFOEM/ COOEDINATES, quired on much larger fields, or, alterna-

47
tively, with significantly higher accuracy, provide the opportunity of processing im- Acknowledgements
on smaller fileds (e.g. VLA, VLBI posi- ages obtained with different projections,
tions, etc.). This procedure, unless it is mapped in different equinoxes as well as It's a pleasure to thank R. Hunstead,
further adapted, is unlikely to provide the related header information fully compat- A. Reid and A. Unewisse for detailed in-
expected precision. Therefore, we would ible with those obtained with other stan- formation about the radio data structure.
recommend that the MIDAS environment dard packages.

The 94NOV Release of ESO-MIDAS

SCIENCE DATA ANALYSIS GROUP

Introduction tions, command and filename completion gramme, the MIDAS version has been
functions and a communication channel split into 3 steps.
The new 94NOV release of ESO- to the MIDAS GUI "help" for on-line help. Firstly, read the measurements and
MIDAS will contain several improve- This line-editor will be the default one standard stars, and compute the trans-
ments and new features in the core sys- for UNIX systems. For VMS systems the formation parameters (this step is
tem as well as in the application areas. In 94NOV release of MIDAS still provides performed by command ASTROME-
this article you will find a summary of the the same line-editor as before. TRY /TRANSFORM. Secondly, edit the
most interesting new ones. More detailed standard star table to remove/restore
descriptions can be found in the recent some stars. This step is performed by the
FITS data decompression on the fly
ESO-MIOAS Courier (October 1994). command ASTEOMETRY /EDIT. Finally,
The new release has been tested The 94NOV release will contain an au- compute the converted coordinates by
on a variety of platforms: SUN/SunOS tomatic "decompression on-the-fly" pro- the command ASTROMETRY / COMPUTE.
4.1.n and SUN/Solaris 2.3, HP/HP-UX, cedure from which commands like IN-
SG/IRIX, IBM/AIX, VAXNMS, TAPE/FITS can benefit. The biggest Graphical user interfaces
DEC/OSF1, DEC/Ultrix, VAX/Open-VMS improvement is that previous process-
and VAXNMS, and PC/Linux. At the time ing sequences like e.g. separate decom- Two new graphical user interfaces
this Messenger is distributed, the official pression of files, removal of the com- (GUls) will be included in the 94NOV re-
94NOV version will be released and all pressed files to save disk space, and fi- lease: a GUI for the Data Organizer (DO)
registered sites informed about its avail- nally reading the decompressed files by and one for the infrared spectroscopy
ability in the "midas" ftp account. INTAPE/FITS are now greatly simpli- package IRSPEC.
In order to optimize the distribution fied: INTAPE/FITS now takes care of Because the DO is particularly in-
of this new release we request that MI- the decompression without the need for tended to be used in an on-line environ-
DAS sites with Internet connectivity re- extra disk space for the decompressed ment, it is essential that observers can
trieve it from the "midas" ftp account. data. interact efficiently with the tools offered
Sites with no connectivity can obtain the to them. Therefore, a versatile graphical
new release on magnetic media after user interface has been fitted to the DO.
having sent a completed ESO-MIDAS
Applications
The main interface window contains the
Request Form to the MIDAS Group Observation Summary Table on which
Upgrade of the CCO package
([email protected]). all subsequent operations can be per-
In order to monitor the quality of the formed. With a number of special wid-
CCDs used on La Silla, ESO has started gets the user can e.g. edit the classifi-
System a programme of standard CCD tests. To cation rules, classify the biases, etc. A
support this programme from the soft- customized on-line version of the DO is
New Line Editor for the 94NOV
ware side, a number of new commands now running at the NTT.
Release are incorporated in the CCD context. A second new GU I was created for the
One of the most prominent changes These commands operate on catalogues IRSPEC context by Cristian Levin at La
that (Unix) users will immediately expe- of images like bias, dark and low-count Silla. Its main purpose is to provide an
rience is the implementation of a new flat frames and will for example give the easy way to reduce infrared data on-line
line editor. In previous releases of ESO- hot and cold pixel locations, the linearity at the NTT, but it can also be very use-
MIDAS the monitor used the "TermWin- and transfer curves, the shutter pattern, ful for off-line data reduction. The main
dows" library for its line-editing capabil- and the charge transfer efficiency. features are:
ities. "TermWindows" was implemented • It has interfaces to all the commands
on VMS and UNIX systems and con- A new astrometry context of the existing context to reduce infrared
tained line-editing features inspired by data.
those working on VAXNMS. The 94NOV A new context ASTROMET con- • A file management feature that al-
release of MIDAS includes and uses a tains the astrometry package previously lows to keep sets of input frame names
new line-editor for the monitor based on known as the programme POS1 origi- in ASCII files.
the GNU "read line" library (also used nally written by Richard West and im- • Some commands were grouped in
in the GNU "bash" shell). This library, plemented in MIDAS by Olivier Hainaut. the interface, and default values are pro-
widely supported on UNIX platforms, en- For the MIDAS implementation the algo- vided for most of the parameters, so the
hances the line-editor capabilities of MI- rithm was not changed as it proved to user can reduce the data very quickly.
DAS with features like a history stack be extremely accurate. While the original From the main menu of the IRSPEC
of commands, emacs or vi editing func- POS1 was doing everything in one pro- graphical interface the user can create

48
sub-windows to start up the different be accessed via the ESO home page tory). All these repositories make the en-
steps of the reduction process. (http://http.hq.eso.org/eso- tire Problem Report database that can be
homepage. html) or directly accessed by regulated editing to main-
reached using the ESO-MIDAS page tain consistency. However, anyone with
User Support http://http.hq.eso.org/midas- access to electronic mail may submit
info. html. We hope to extend this Problem Reports. Provided a submitted
ESO-MIOAS on the WWW
service with e.g. information about the Problem Report contains a minimal set
A description of the ESO-MIDAS 94NOV release and further ongoing de- of field descriptors, GNATS is able to
project is now available via the ESO velopments. forward the PR automatically to the
World Wide Web server (WWW). The in- responsible person, and keep track of
formation contains an overview of the MI- Handling of problem reports its status.
DAS hard- and software requirements, One of the most important require-
distribution policy (including the ESO- Until the beginning of this year the han- ments of a new system is the user friend-
MIDAS Request Form), documentation dling of incoming problem reports was al- liness, in particular for new and inexperi-
and support, and User Guides. Regis- most completely manual and rather time enced users who even more than expe-
tered ESO-MIDAS sites can also start consuming, and an increase in efficiency rienced ones are in need of a good re-
the MIDAS Xhelp Graphical User Inter- would certainly free our hands for other porting system. This requirement is ful-
face directly from the XMosaic ESO- priorities. For that reason we looked into filled via two possibilities of forwarding
MIDAS home page. Besides consult- products that administer problem reports problem reports to ESO. The first one
ing the on-line MIDAS help documenta- (semi-)automatically. After evalution of a is by simply composing a text file con-
tion, this facility also enables the users few of these software products we have taining the obligatory fields and forward-
to send problem reports and ques- chosen to use the GNU Problem Report ing it to the MIDAS e-mail address (mi-
tions to the MIDAS account at ESO Management System, GNATS. [email protected]). The second way, how-
headquarters in a pre-specified for- In GNATS, each problem report arriv- ever, is simpler and also saves time of
mat that facilitates automatic process- ing at ESO is stored as a separate file the Problem Report manager at ESO: the
ing. The ESO-MIDAS WWW pages can within a main GNATS repository (direc- XHeip Graphical User Interface.

49
 ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENT

European SL-9/Jupiter Workshop

Date: February 13-15, 1995

Venue: ESO Headquarters, Garching bei Munchen, Germany

This ESO Workshop will serve to bring together European astronomers who have obtained observational data before, during and after
the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. Only by combining these data will it be possible to arrive at a good understanding
of the complex phenomena and the meeting will thus contribute to the ongoing interpretative efforts. It will further the preparation of joint
papers to be delivered at the major IAU Colloquium 158 on the same subject three months later (May 9-12, 1995; Baltimore, Maryland,
U.S.A.) and also provide a useful forum for those European observers who are unable to come to Baltimore. The participation of Central
and East European astronomers in the ESO Workshop will be supported by the ESO C&EE Programme. Some key people from outside
Europe will provide additional input from other sides.
The meeting will be held in the ESO Auditorium and in view of its limited capacity (approx. 125), participation in this Workshop may have
to be restricted.
The deadline for submission of abstracts to contributed talks and posters is January 15, 1995.
Please note that there will be a conference fee of 80 OM; this includes a copy of the Proceedings, to be available on May 1, 1995.

TOPICS
I. The comet before impact
II. The impacts
III. Long-term effects
IV. Summary

PRELIMINARY LIST OF SPEAKERS

H. Barwig, D. Bockelee-Morvan, R.W Carlson, J. Crovisier, G. Chernova, K. Churyumov, F. Colas, P. Drossart, C. Eme-
rich, 1. Encrenaz, A. Fitzsimmons, E. Gerard, O. Hainaut, D. Hamilton, 1. Herbst, K. Horne, W-H. Ip, D.C. Jewitt,
K. Jockers, H. Kaufl, P. Lagage, J. Lecacheux, E. Lellouch, 1. Livengood, D. Lupishko, J.-P. Maillard, A. Marten, K.-H.
Mantel, S. Miller, F. Moreno, B. Mosser, G. Neukum, J. Ortiz Moreno, G. Paubert, R. Prange, P.
Schleicher, R. Schulz, Z. Sekanina, JA Stuewe, N. Thomas, N. Walton, J. Watanabe, R.M. West.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Heinz Barwig (University Observatory, Munich, Germany)

Hermann B6hnhardt (University Observatory, Munich, Germany)
Jacques Crovisier (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France)
Therese Encrenaz (Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France)
Benoit Mosser (Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France)
Rita Schulz (Max-Planck-Institut fUr Aeronomie, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany)
Richard West (European Southern Observatory)

TIMETABLE

Jan. 15, 1995: Deadline for submission of abstracts of contributed talks and posters to Conference Secretariat
Jan. 20, 1995: ESO C&EE Committee allocates support for participation in Workshop; grantees are informed
Jan. 20, 1995: Final Programme available. Participants will be informed about their proposed presentations
Feb. 13-15, 1995: European SL-9/Jupiter Workshop at ESO HQ
Feb. 27, 1995: Deadline for submission of manuscripts
May 1,1995: Publication of Proceedings

CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT

0-85748 Garching bei MUnchen, Germany Email: [email protected] (Internet)

European Southern Observatory Fax: (+49-89) 320-23-62
Elisabeth V61k (SL9-1995) Tel: (+49-89) 320-06-276
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2 Tlx : 52828222 eo d
0-85748 Garching bei MUnchen, Germany Email: [email protected] (Internet)

50
 ESO/MPA Workshop on ESC I ST-ECF Workshop
Spiral Galaxies in the Near-IR Calibrating and Understanding
Garching, 7-9 June 1995 HST and ESO Instruments
The Workshop will bring theorists and observers together to dis- ESC, Garching, April 26-28, 1995
cuss what can be learned about the dynamics, populations and
nuclei of spiral galaxies from the newly available array data in
Space and Ground-based Observatories have followed differ-
the near infra-red. Topics to be covered include:
ent approaches to the problem of monitoring, calibrating and
• Resolved Populations understanding their Scientific Instruments. However, with the in-
• Global Colours creasing complexity of the new Ground-based Instrumentation,
• Structure of Disks and Bars this cultural and operational gap is gradually disappearing. This
• Milky Way Structure Workshop, starting from a review of the level and effectiveness
• Nuclei of Spirals of the calibration procedures which are currently adopted by the
• Spectroscopic Population Constraints refurbished HST and by the ESO main Instruments, is aimed
at highlighting the remaining d'ifferences and will provide guide-
Scientific Organizing Committee: E. Athanassoula, K. Free- lines for the development of operational procedures and software
man, R. Genzel, D. Minniti, A. Moorwood, M. Rieke, H.-W. Rix, tools to be used in the VLT era. The core programme will include
S. D. M. White. invited reviews followed by round-table discussions; a limited
Send inquiries to: [email protected] or [email protected] number of contributed papers/posters will also be selected.

Contact Addresses: Main Topics:

Dante Minniti Hans-Walter Rix • HST Instruments after the M&R Mission
European Southern Max-Planck-Institut fOr • ESO/La Silla Instruments
Observatory Astrophysik • VLT and VLTllnstruments
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2 Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1 • Current and Future Major Observatories
D-85748 Garching bei D-85748 Garching bei • Software Environments
MOnchen, Germany MOnchen, Germany
phone: +49 89 320 06 532 phone: +49 89 3299 323 Scientific Organizing Committee: D. Baade (ESO), P. Ben-
fax: +49 89 320 2362 fax: +49 89 3299 3295 venuti (ESO/ST-ECF), J. Bergeron (ESO), S. D'Odorico (ESO),
K. Freeman (MSSSO), P. Grosbol (ESO), H. Hensberge (Konink-
lijke Sterrenwacht van Belgie), M. Mountain (NOAO), M. Rosa
(ST-ECF), E. Schreier (ST Sci) H. Schwarz, (ESO Chile), J. Spy-
The Role of Dust romilio (ESO), J. Wampler (ESO).

in the Formation of Stars Local Organizing Committee: P. Benvenuti, R. Gilmozzi, F.

Murtagh, M. Peron, B. Sjoberg, J. Spyromilio.
ESC, Garching, September 11-14,1995
Further information:
To keep the VLT observatory and its scientific instrumentation in WWW URL http://http.hq.eso.org/calconf.html
phase with the evolution of astronomical research, ESO is or-
Contact address: Britt Sjoberg, European Southern Observa-
ganizing selected workshops dedicated to specialized fields of
tory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
current research. The objective of this workshop is to have an ex-
change between observers, experimentalists and theoreticians.
Tel.: +49-89-32006-291; Fax: +49-89-32006-480;
The discussion shall encompass the status of observations and
E-mail: [email protected]
observational techniques, laboratory experiments and theoreti-
cal research with emphasis on what observations are needed for Registration deadline: March 3, 1995
the future to test predictions and to constrain models.
Registration fee: DM 80.00 payable at the workshop. The fee
Among topics to be covered are:
includes a free copy of the Proceedings published by ESO.
• a short presentation of the VLT project
• Present observations of YSO
• Properties of dust around YSO
• Processing of dust in YSO
• Models (e.g. synthetic spectra or evolutionary
scenarios) New ESO Scientific Preprints
• Dust as a catalytic agent for star formation
Scientific organization: Rolf Chini and Endrik KrOgel (MPlfR, October-December 1994
Bonn), Thomas Henning (MPG-AG Dust and Star Formation,
Jena), John Mathis (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), Antonella Natta 1037. G. Mathys: Spectropolarimetry of Magnetic Stars. III. Measure-
(Oss. Astronomico Arcetri), Jean-Loup Puget (lAS, Orsay), ment Uncertainties. -IV. The Crossover Effect. - V. The Mean
Alexander Tielens (NASA Ames, Moffet Field), Nikolai Voshchin- Quadratic Magnetic Field. Astronomy and Astrophysics.
nikov (Astronomical Institute, St. Petersburg) 1038. R.L.M. Corradi and H.E. Schwarz: Morphological Populations
The workshop will be organized locally by: Hans Ulrich Kaufl of Planetary Nebulae: Which Progenitors? I. Comparative Prop-
(ESO, Garching) and Ralf Siebenmorgen (ESAIESTEC, Nord- erties of Bipolar Nebulae. Astronomy and Astrophysics.
wijk) 1039. G. Mathys and S. Hubrig: Magnetic Fields of the HgMn Spectro-
scopic Binaries x Lup and 74 Aqr. Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Pre-registration by: December 31, 1994 1040. AA Zijlstra: Stellar Evolution and Mass Loss on the Asymp-
totic Giant Branch. Review talk given at Edinburgh, September
All information about this workshop is available via www 1994, "Circumstellar Matter".
http://http.hq.eso.org/stardust.html 1041. X.-w. Liu, M.J. Barlow, I.J. Danziger and RES. Clegg: Neu-
tral Carbon Far-Red Forbidden Line Emission from Planetary
or using the finger command Nebulae. M.N.R.A.S.
finger [email protected] 1042. D. Maccagni, B. Garilli and M. Tarenghi: The Complex Structure
of Abell 2151 (Hercules). The Astronomical Journal.

51
 VACANCY AT LA SILLA

Staff Astronomer
A position as staff astronomer will become available at La Silla in the middle of 1995. The position is open to experienced observational
astronomers with a Ph.D degree or equivalent and several years of post-doctoral experience in the area of CCD imaging and low-dispersion
spectroscopy.
Astronomers at ESO in Chile are required to spend 50% of their time doing support activities and 50% of their time on research. A strong
background of independent research is an essential requirement. Every three weeks ESO astronomers spend one week at La Silla doing
functional work, followed by one week of compensatory leave, and then one week doing research at ESO's Institute of Astronomy at
Vitacura in Santiago. ESO astronomers are based in Santiago.
The successful candidate will be responsible for the EFOSC instruments at La Silla, and is therefore expected to have knowledge and
interests in CCD's and their calibration, and CCD photometry and low-dispersion grism spectroscopy. The functional work includes
• introducing visitors to the use of the instruments
• writing and updating User's Manuals
• interacting with the technical staff on modifications and updates of the instrumentation.
Staff posts are normally offered for an initial period of 3 years and may be renewed for a second period of 3 years.
Applications should be submitted to ESO not later than March 15, 1995. Applicants will be notified by June 1, 1995. The ESO Application
Form should be used and be accompanied by a list of publications. In addition, three letters of recommendation from persons familiar with
the scientific work of the applicant should be sent directly to ESO. These letters should reach ESO not later than March 15, 1995.
The research interests of the members of the staff in the Astronomy Support Department at La Silla include low-mass star formation,
chemistry of molecular clouds, high-resolution spectroscopy of cool stars, supernovae and their remnants, the distance scale, compact
groups of galaxies, and observational cosmology. Staff members and senior fellows act as co-supervisors for students of European
universities who spend up to 2 years on La Silla working towards a doctoral dissertation. The staff of the Astronomy Support Department
consists of about 20 astronomers including staff, post-doctoral fellows, and students. Most of the ESO scientists are from the member
states of ESO (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland), but several are from other countries.
The research facilities at La Silla consist of 12 telescopes, including the SEST 15-m submillimetre antenna, and the 3.5-m New Technology
Telescope. There are ample computing facilities in Vitacura including a number of networked SUN workstations, running MIDAS, IRAF,
Supermongo, etc.
Enquiries, requests for application forms and applications should be addressed to:

European Southern Observatory

Personnel Department
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
D-85748 Garching bei MOnchen, Germany

1043. W. Freudling: An Image Restoration Technique for the Removal

of Cosmic Ray Hits from Dithered Images. PA.S.P. Staff Movements
1044. H. Kjeldsen, 1.R. Bedding, M. Viskum and S. Frandsen: Solar-
Like Oscillations in 7) Boo. The Astronomical Journal. Arrivals
1045. E.J. Wampler, N.N. Chugai and P. Petitjean: The Absorption Europe
Spectrum of Nuclear Gas in 00059-2735. Astrophysical Jour-
nal. AMICO, Paola (I), Fellow
1046. G. Mathys and 1. Lanz: Magnetic Splitting and Identification ANDERSEN, Torben (DK), Senior Systems Analyst/Head of
of Spectral Lines in Ap Stars. To be published in the Proc. of System Engineering Group
the Workshop "Laboratory and High Resolution Spectra" (Brus- BELETIC, James (USA), Head of Optical Detector Group
sels, Aug. 29-Sept. 2,1994). Eds. AJ. Sauval, R. Blomme, N. BOHM, Torsten (D), Fellow
Grevesse. Astron. Soc. Pacific Cont. Series. COURBIN, Frederic (F), Student
1047. W. Freudling et al.: Gas Around IJ Pictoris: An Upper Limit on DERIE, Frederic (F), Student
the HI Content. Astronomy and Astrophysics. DORN, Peter (D), Laboratory Technician (Photography)
1048. D. Minniti, E. Olszewski and M. Rieke: IR Photometry of M33. MAYR, Stephanie (D), Junior Analyst
In Proc. of the 3rd ESO/CTIO Workshop on "The Local Group MICHEL, Alain (F), Optical Engineer
Galaxies". Eds. A Layden and J. Storm, in press. MONNET, Guy (F), Senior Astronomer I Physicist-Head of the
D. Minniti and 1.R. Bedding: Resolving Distant Galaxies Into Instrumentation Division
Stars. In Proc. of the ESO Workshop on "Science with the VAN KESTER EN, Arno (NL), EMC and Electrical Engineer
VLT", 1994. Eds. J.R. Walsh and J. Danziger, in press. Chile
A Zijlstra and D. Minniti: Miras in Nearby Galaxies. In Proc. of
the ESO Workshop on "Science with the VLT". GUISARD, Stephane (F), Optical Engineer
1049. D. Minniti: The Helium Abundance of the Galactic Bulge. In PRIETO, Eric (F), Optical Engineer
Proc. of ESO/EIPC Workshop on "The Light Element Abun- STORM, Jesper (DK), Paid Associate (changed from Fellow)
dances". Ed. P. Crane, in press.
The Formation of the Galactic Bulge: Clues from Metal-Rich Departures
Globular Clusters. In "The Formation of the Milky Way". Eds. E.
Alfaro and G. Tenorio-Tagle, in press. Europe
Metallicity, Structure and Kinematics of the Milky Way's Bulge. BEDDING, Timothy (Aus), Fellow
In IAU Symp. 169 on "Unsolved Problems with the Milky Way". GERBIER, Alain (F), Mechanical Engineer
Ed. L. Blitz, in press. TINNEY, Christopher (Aus), Fellow

52
 MESSENGER INDEX 1994 (Nos. 75-78)

SUBJECT INDEX
Organizational Matters A-M. Lagrange: Studies of Disks Around S. Ortolani, E. Bica and B. Barbuy: NIT Ob-
Main-Sequence Stars with the VLT 76,23 servations of Obscured Globular Clusters
R. Giacconi: Message from the Director Gen- F Fusi Pecci, C. Cacciari, FR. Ferraro, R. 75, 26
eral - Summary of a Report to the ESO Gratton and L. Origlia: Globular Clusters L. Reduzzi, R. Rampazzo, J W Sulentic and
Staff 76,1 with the VLT 77, 14 P Prugniel: Fine Structure in the Early-Type
R. Giacconi: Latest Developments Around B. Theodore, P Petitjean and N. Hubin: Scien- Components in Mixed Pairs of Galaxies
Paranal 77, 1 tific Capabilities of the VLT Adaptive Optics 75, 28
R. Giacconi: Current Status of ESO - Speech System 77,20 JL. Beuzit, B. Brandl, M. Combes, A Eckart,
to the Staff at the ESO Garching Headquar- D. Dravins: Astrophysics on Its Shortest M. Faucherre, M. Heydari-Malayeri, N. Hu-
ters on December 6, 1994 78, 1 Timescales 78, 9 bin, 0. Lai, PLena, c. Perrier, G. Per-
J Andersen: Science on la Silla in the VLT Era rin, A Quirrenbach, D. Rouan, B. Sams
78, 3 and P Thebault: Contributions of the ESO
SL-9/Jupiter Encounter - Adaptive Optics Programme to Astronomy:
Special a First Review 75, 33
Telescopes A Vallenari, G. Bertelli, C. Chiosi and S. Or-
and Instrumentation R.M. West: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Col-
tolani: The History of Star Formation in the
Large Magellanic Cloud 76, 30
lides with Jupiter - the Continuation of a
D. Baade, E. Giraud, P Gitton, P Glaves, D. R. Mignani, PA Caraveo and G.F Bignami:
Unique Experience 77, 28
Gojak, G. Mathys, R. Rojas, J Storm and Geminga, 10 Years of Optical Observations
G. Chernova and K. Jockers: Imaging of
A Wallander: Re-invigorating the NIT as a 76, 32
Comet SL-9 in the Gunn Photometric Sys-
New Technology Telescope 75, 1 M. Shaw, C. Tadhunter, N. Clark, R. Dick-
tem 77,32
M. Quattri: VLT Main Structure Design 75,5 son, R. Morganti, R. Fosbury and R. Hook:
R.M. West and 0. Hainaut: Predicting the Im-
M. Tarenghi: Beginning of Construction 75, 5 JeVCloud Interactions in Southern Radio
P Giordano: A New Approach for the In-Situ pacts 77,33
Galaxies? 76, 34
Cleaning of VLT Mirrors: the Peel-Off Tech- H. Barwig and 0. Barnbantner: Searching for
PE. Nissen, D.L. Lambert and V. V. Smith: The
nique 75,7 SL-9 Light Echoes - a Challenge for High-
Lithium Isotope Ratio in Metal-Poor Stars
P Giordano and A Torrejon: In-Situ Cleaning Speed Multi-Channel Photometry 77, 34
76, 36
of the NIT Main Mirror by CO2 Snow-Flake K. Jockers: Near-Infrared Imaging of Comet
M. Arnaboldi, K.C. Freeman, X. Hui, M. Ca-
Sweeping 75, 9 SL-9 and Jupiter's Atmosphere 77, 35
paccioli and H. Ford: The Kinematics of the
D. Enard: Work Starts on the VLT M2 Units H.U. Kauf/: Imaging of the Signatures of
Planetary Nebulae in the Outer Regions of
76,2 the Impact Events in the Thermal Infrared
NGC 1399 76,40
B. Koehler: Hunting the Bad Vibes at Paranal! 77, 37
F Font, D. Queloz, M. Mayor and G. Burki:
76,4 Th. Encrenaz, R. Schulz, JA Stuewe, G. Milky Way Rotation from Cepheids 76, 45
H. Zodet: Recent Photographs of Paranal Wiedemann, P Drossart and J Crovisier: M. Srinivasan Sahu and A Blaauw: Interstel-
76, 10 Near-IR Spectroscopy of Jupiter at the lar Na I Absorption Towards Stars in the Re-
M. Sarazin: Site Surveys, from Pioneering Times of SL-9 Impact Using NIT-IRSPEC: gion of the IRAS Vela Shell 76, 48
Times to the VLT Era 76, 12 Emissions of CH 4 , Hi and H 2 77, 40 M. KOrster, AP Hatzes, WD. Cochran, CE
M. Sarazin: Seeing Update: La Silla Back on N. Thomas, L. Jorda and B. Sicardy: CCD Pulliam, K. Dennerl and S. D6bereiner: A
the Track 76, 13 Imaging of Jupiter During the Comet Radial Velocity Search for Extra-Solar Plan-
S. D'Odorico: A F/5.2 Camera with a Thinned Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Using the Dan- ets Using an Iodine Gas Absorption Cell at
2048 2 CCD at the EMMI Red Arm 76,15 ish 1.54-m Telescope at ESO 77, 42 the CAT + CES 76,51
H. Dekker, S. D'Odorico and A Fontana: Test R. Schulz, Th. Encrenaz, JA StOwe and R. Falomo: High-Resolution Imaging of the Ac-
of an R4 Echelle Mosaic 76, 16 G. Wiedemann: The Distribution of Near- tive Galaxy PKS 0521-365 and its Optical
J Melnick: News from La Silla 76, 20 IR Emissions in the Jovian Stratosphere Jet 77,49
The NIT Team: NIT - Bits & Pixels 76, 21 Caused by the SL-9 Impact 77,44 R. Gredel: Molecular Hydrogen Observations
M. Tarenghi: VLT Progress Report 77, 2 B. Mosser: Jovian Quakes 77, 46 Towards Herbig-Haro Objects 77, 52
L. Pasquini, J Storm and H. Dekker: A New F Murtagh and M. Fendt: The SL-9/ESO Web
High-Resolution Holographic Grating for P Saracco, A Iovino, G. Chincarini, B. Garilli
Encounter 77, 47 and D. Maccagni: Towards a Deep IR ESO
the Blue Arm of EMMI 77, 5 R. Albrecht: The Comet, Jupiter, and Every-
C.M. de Oliveira, A Gilliotte and R. Tighe: Sample 77, 55
thing: SL-9 and the Media - a Strictly Per- A Marconi, AFM. Moorwood, L. Origlia and
New Holographic Grating for the B&C on
sonal Impression 77, 47 E. Oliva: A Prominent Ionization Cone
the ESO 1.52-m Telescope 77, 6
A Moorwood, G. Finger and H. Gemperlein: and Starburst Ring in the Nearby Circinus
Test of the Upgraded IRAC1 Camera for Galaxy 78, 20
1-5 ,Lm Imaging 77, 8
Reports from Observers M. Pierre, R. Hunstead, A Reid, G. Robert-
The NIT Team: NTT - Bits & Pixels 77, 11 son, Y. Mellier, G. Soucail, H. B6hringer, H.
J Melnick: Additional News from ESO-Chile R. Genzel, A Eckart, R. Hofmann, A Quir- Ebeling, W Voges, C. Cesarsky, J Ouk-
77,12 renbach, B. Sams and L. Tacconi-Garman: bir, J-L. Sauvageot and L. Vigroux: Multi-
H.U. Kauf/: N-Band Long-Slit Grism Spec- High-Resolution NIR Imaging of Galactic Wavelength Study of ROSAT Clusters of
troscopy with TIMMI at the 3.6-m Telescope Nuclei 75, 17 Galaxies 78, 24
78,4 L. Origlia, AFM. Moorwood and E. Oliva: In- M. Tarenghi:The VLT Site at Paranal: Septem-
The NIT Team: NIT - Bits & Pixels 78, 7 frared Spectroscopy of Galactic Globular ber 1994 78, 27
Clusters 75, 21 R. Falomo and JE Pesce: The Cluster Envi-
L.-F Wang and E.J Wampler: New NTT Im- ronment of BL Lac Objects 78, 30
Science with the VLT ages of SN 1987 A 75, 22 E. Tessier J Bouvier, J-L. Beuzit and W
Po. Lagage and E. Pantin: Probing Dust Brandner: COME-ON+ Adaptive Optics im-
T. Encrenaz: Observation of Solar-System Ob- Around Main-Sequence Stars with Timmi ages on the Pre-Main Sequence Binary NX
jects with the VLT 75, 12 75, 24 Pup 78, 35

53
P Andreani, H. B6hringer, R. Booth, G. Dal- Provence; Stars, Comets, Good Food and ESO Fellowships 76, 64
1'0glio, L.-A. Nyman, L. Pizzo, P Shaver Warm Hospitality 77, 58 Studentships at La Silla 76, 64
and N. Whyborn: Observations of the Zel- H.-M. Adorf, D. Egret, A. Heck, R. Jackson, A. Fellowships at La Silla 76, 64
dovich Effect Towards ROSAT Clusters with Koekemoer, F Murtaghand D. Wells: The Senior Visitor Programme at La Silla 76, 65
SEST and the Italian Double-Channel Pho- AstroWeb Database of Internet Resources New ESO Preprints (March-June 1994)
tometer 78, 41 78, 44 76, 65
M. Pierre: Producing Multi-Wavelength Over- Announcement of ESO Workshop on "OSO
lays with MIDAS 78,46 Absorption Lines" 76, 65
Other Astronomical News Science Data Analysis Group: The 94NOV Staff Movements 76, 66
Release of ESO-MIDAS 78,48 F Palma: Written-Off Items Available at ESO
P Benvenuti: The New Data Management Di- Headquarters 76, 66
vision at ESO 75, 38 Observing Programmes Approved for Period
U. Michold: The ESO Library Information Sys- Announcements 54 77,61
tem 75,39 LISA II - Library and Information Services in
Council and Committee Members in 1994 Astronomy \I 77, 66
J. Breysacher: The New ESO Observing Pro-
75,48 Staff Movements 77, 66
grammes Committee 75, 43
Time-Table of Council Sessions and Commit- New ESO Publications (July-September
C. Cesarsky, J. Breysacher and R. Kudritzki:
tee Meetings 75, 48 1994) 77, 67
Meeting on Key Programmes 75, 45
Observing Programmes Approved for Period European SL-9/Jupiter Workshop 78,50
Science Data Analysis Group: The 94May Re-
53 75, 48 ESO/MPA Workshop on "Spiral Galaxies in the
lease of ESO-MIDAS 76, 56 Postdoctoral Fellowship on La Silla 77, 54
The ESO Web Consortium: ESO's New On- Near-IR" 78,51
Announcement of ESO Workshop on "Science Workshop on "The Role of Dust in the Forma-
Line Information System 76, 56 with the VLT" 75, 54
P Crane and J. Faulkner: The Light Element tion of Stars" 78, 51
Announcement of ESO Workshop on "OSO ESO/ST-ECF Workshop on "Calibrating and
Abundances - a Light Review of the Recent Absorption Lines" 75, 54 Understanding HST and ESO Instruments
ESO/EIPC Workshop 76, 58 New ESO Publications (December 1993- 78, 51
R.M. West: Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter Colli- February 1994) 75,54 New ESO Scientific Preprints (October-
sion to be Observed at ESO 76, 59 Staff Movement 75, 56
November 1994) 78,51
M. Veron and E.J. Wampler: The 4th S.R. Pottasch: Adriaan Blaauw at 80 76, 62
Staff Movements 78, 52
ESO/OHP Summer School - Two Weeks in ESO Studentship Programme 76, 64

AUTHOR INDEX
A A. Quirrenbach, D. Rouan, B. Sams and P Encrenaz Th., R. Schulz, J.A. Stuewe, G.
Thebault: Contributions of the ESO Adap- Wiedemann, P Drossart and Crovisier J.:
Adorf H.-M., D. Egret, A. Heck, R. Jackson, A. tive Optics Programme to Astronomy: a Near-IR Spectroscopy of Jupiter at the
Koekemoer, F Murtagh and D. Wells: The First Review 75, 33 Times of SL-9 Impact Using NTT-IRSPEC:
AstroWeb Database of Internet Resources Breysacher J.: The New ESO Observing Pro- Emissions of CH 4 , Hi and H2 77, 40
78, 44 grammes Committee 75, 43
Albrecht R.: The Comet, Jupiter, and Every- F
thing: SL-9 and the Media - a Strictly Per-
sonal Impression 77, 47
c
Falomo R.: High-Resolution Imaging of the Ac-
Andersen, J.: Science on La Silla in the VLT Cesarsky C., J. Breysacher and R. Kudritzki: tive Galaxy PKS 0521-365 and its Optical
Era 78,3 Meeting on Key Programmes 75, 45 Jet 77,49
Andreani P, H. B6hringer, R. Booth, G. Dal- Chernova G. and K. Jockers: Imaging of Falomo R. and JE Pesce: The Cluster Envi-
1'0g1/0, L.-A. Nyman, L. Pizzo, P Shaver Comet SL-9 in the Gunn Photometric Sys- ronment of BL Lac Objects 78, 30
and N. Whyborn: Observations of the tem 77,32 Font F, D. Queloz, M. Mayor and G. Burki:
Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect Towards ROSAT Crane P and J. Faulkner: The Light Element Milky Way Rotation from Cepheids 76, 45
Clusters with SEST and the Italian Double- Abundances - a Light Review of the Recent Fusi Pecci F, C. Cacciari, FR. Ferraro, R.
Channel Photometer 78, 41 ESO/EIPC Workshop 76, 58 Gratton and L. Origlia: Globular Clusters
Arnaboldi M., K.C. Freeman, X. Hui, M. Ca- with the VLT 77, 14
paccioli and H. Ford: The Kinematics of the
Planetary Nebulae in the Outer Regions of
D
NGC 1399 76,40 G
D'Odorico S.: A F/5.2 Camera with a Thinned
2048 2 CCD at the EMMI Red Arm 76, 15 Genzel R., A. Eckart, R. Hofmann, A. Quir-
B Dekker H., S. D'Odorico and A. Fontana: Test renbach, B. Sams and L. Tacconi-Garman:
of an R4 Echelle Mosaic 76, 16 High-Resolution NIR Imaging of Galactic
Baade D., E. Giraud, P Gitton, P Glaves, D. de Oliveira C.M., A. Gilliotte and R. Tighe: Nuclei 75, 17
Gojak, G. Mathys, R. Rojas, J. Storm and New Holographic Grating for the B&C on Giacconi R.: Message from the Director Gen-
A. Wallander: Re-invigorating the NTT as a the ESO 1.52-m Telescope 77, 6 eral - Summary of a Report to the ESO
New Technology Telescope 75, 1 Dravins D.: Astrophysics on Its Shortest Staff 76,1
Barwig H. and 0. Barnbantner: Searching for Timescales 78, 9 Giacconi R.: Latest Developments Around
SL-9 Light Echoes - a Challenge for High- Paranal 77, 1
Speed Multi-Channel Photometry 77,34 E Giacconi R.: Current Status of ESO - Speech
Benvenuti P: The New Data Management Di- to the Staff at the ESO Garching Headquar-
vision at ESO 75, 38 Enard D.: Work Starts on the VLT M2 Units ters on December 6, 1994 78, 1
Beuzit J.L., B. Brandl, M. Combes, A. Eckart, 76,2 Giordano P: A New Approach for the In-Situ
M. Faucherre, M. Heydari-Malayeri, N. Hu- Encrenaz Th.: Observation of Solar-System Cleaning of VLT Mirrors: the Peel-Off Tech-
bin, 0. Lai, PLena, C. Perrier, Perrin G., Objects with the VLT 75, 12 nique 75,7

54
Giordano P and A Torrejon: In-Situ Cleaning N IR Emissions in the Jovian Stratosphere
of the NTT Main Mirror by C02 Snow-Flake Caused by the SL-9 Impact 77, 44
Sweeping 75, 9 Nissen PE, DL Lambert and V. V. Smith: The Shaw M, C. Tadhunter, N. Clark, R. Dick-
Gredel R.: Molecular Hydrogen Observations Lithium Isotope Ratio in Metal-Poor Stars son, R. Morganti, R. Fosbury and R. Hook:
Towards Herbig-Haro Objects 77, 52 76, 36 Jet/Cloud Interactions in Southern Radio
Galaxies? 76, 34
J o Srinivasan Sahu M and A Blaauw: Interstel-
lar Na I Absorption Towards Stars in the Re-
Jockers K.: Near-Infrared Imaging of Comet Origlia L., AF.M. Moorwood and E Oliva: In- gion of the IRAS Vela Shell 76, 48
SL-9 and Jupiter's Atmosphere 77, 35 frared Spectroscopy of Galactic Globular
Clusters 75, 21
Ortolani S., E Bica and B. Barbuy: NTT Ob-
T
K servations of Obscured Globular Clusters
Tarenghi M: Beginning of Construction 75, 5
75, 26
Kaufl HU: Imaging of the Signatures of Tarenghi M: VLT Progress Report 77,2
the Impact Events in the Thermal Infrared Tarenghi M:The VLT Site at Paranal: Septem-
p ber 1994 78, 27
77,37
Kaufl HU: N-Band Long-Slit Grism Spec- Tessier E, J Bouvier, J-L. Beuzit and W
Palma F.: Written-Off Items Available at ESO Brandner. COME-ON+ Adaptive Optics Im-
troscopy with TIMMI at the 3.6-m Telescope
Headquarters 76, 66 ages of the Pre-Main Sequence Binary NX
78,4 Pasquini L., J Storm and H Dekker: A New
Koehler B.: Hunting the Bad Vibes at Paranall Pub 78, 35
High-Resolution Holographic Grating for Theodore B., P Petitjean and N. Hubin: Scien-
76,4 the Blue Arm of EMMI 77, 5
KDrster M, AP Hatzes, WD. Cochran, CE tific Capabilities of the VLT Adaptive Optics
Pierre M, R. Hunstead, A Reid, G. Robert-
Pulliam, K. Dennerl and S. D6bereiner: A System 77, 20
son, Y Mellier, G. Soucail, H. B6hringer, H.
Radial Velocity Search for Extra-Solar Plan- Thomas N., L. Jorda and B. Sicardy: CCD
Ebeling, W Voges, C. Cesarsky, J Ouk-
ets Using an Iodine Gas Absorption Cell at Imaging of Jupiter During the Comet
bir, J-L. Sauvageot and L. Vigroux: Multi-
the CAT + CES 76, 51 Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Using the Dan-
Wavelength Study of ROSAT Clusters of
ish 1.54-m Telescope at ESO 77, 42
Galaxies 78, 24
L Pierre M: Producing Multi-Wavelength Over-
lays with MIDAS 78, 46 v
Lagage Po. and E Pantin: Probing Dust Pont F., D. Queloz, M Mayor and G. Burki:
Around Main-Sequence Stars with Timmi Milky Way Rotation from Cepheids 76,45 Vallenari A, G. Bertelli, C. Chiosi and S. Or-
75, 24 Pottasch S.R.: Adriaan Blaauw at 80 76, 62 tolani: The History of Star Formation in the
Lagrange A-M: Studies of Disks Around Large Magellanic Cloud 76, 30
Main-Sequence Stars with the VLT 76,23 Q Veron M and EJ Wampler: The 4th
ESO/OHP Summer School- Two Weeks in
Quattri M: VLT Main Structure Design 75, 5 Provence; Stars, Comets, Good Food and
M Warm Hospitality 77, 58
A Marconi, AF.M. Moorwood, L. Origlia and R
E Oliva: A Prominent Ionization Cone w
and Starburst Ring in the Nearby Circinus Reduzzi L., R. Rampazzo, J W Sulentic and
Galaxy 78, 20 P Prugniel: Fine Structure in the Early-Type Wang L.-F. and EJ Wampler: New NTT Im-
Melnick J: News from La Silla 76,20 Components in Mixed Pairs of Galaxies ages of SN 1987 A 75, 22
Melnick J: Additional News from ESO-Chile 75,28 West R.M.: Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter Colli-
77,12 sion to be Observed at ESO 76, 59
Michold U:The ESO Library Information Sys-
tem 75,39
s West R.M: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Col-
lides with Jupiter - the Continuation of a
Mignani R., PA Caraveo and G.F. Bignami: Saracco P, A Iovino, G. Chincarini, B. Garilli
Unique Experience 77, 28
Geminga, 10 Years of Optical Observations and D. Maccagni: Towards a Deep IR ESO West R.M and O. Hainaut: Predicting the Im-
76,32 Sample 77, 55 pacts 77,33
Moorwood A, G. Finger and H Gemperlein: Sarazin M: Site Surveys, from Pioneering
Test of the Upgraded IRAC1 Camera for
1-5 I,m Imaging 77, 8
Times to the VLT Era 76, 12
Sarazin M: Seeing Update: La Silla Back on
z
Mosser B.: Jovian Quakes 77,46 the Track 76,13 H Zodet: Recent Photographs of Paranal
Murtagh F. and M Fendt: The SL-9/ESO Web Schulz R., Th. Encrenaz, JA StOwe and 76,10
Encounter 77, 47 G. Wiedemann: The Distribution of Near-

55
 Contents
R. Giacconi: Current Status of ESO - Speech to the Staff at the ESO
Garching Headquarters on December 6, 1994 1
J. Andersen: Science on La Silla in the VLT Era. .. . .. . . . . .. .. .. . 3

TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION

H.U. Kaufl: N-Band Long-Slit Grism Spectroscopy with TIMMI at the

3.6-m Telescope 4
NTT Bits and Pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SCIENCE WITH THE VLT

D. Dravins: Astrophysics on Its Shortest Timescales . 9

REPORTS FROM OBSERVERS

A. Marconi, A.F.M. Moorwood, L. Origlia and E. Oliva: A Prominent

Ionization Cone and Starburst Ring in the Nearby Circinus Galaxy 20
M. Pierre, R. Hunstead, A. Reid, G. Robertson, Y. Mellier, G. Soucail,
H. B6hringer, H. Ebeling, W. Voges, C. Cesarsky, J. Oukbir, J.-L.
Sauvageot and L. Vigroux: Multi-Wavelength Study of ROSAT
Clusters of Galaxies .. ... .. .. ... .. .... ... .. .. . . ..... .. .. .... 24
M. Tarenghi: The VLT Site at Paranal: September 1994 27
R. Falomo and J.E. Pesce: The Cluster Environment of BL Lac Objects 30
E. Tessier, J. Bouvier, J.-L. Beuzit and W. Brandner: COME-ON+ Adap-
tive Optics Images of the Pre-Main Sequence Binary NX Pup. . .. . 35
P. Andreani, H. B6hringer, R. Booth, G. Dall'Oglio, L.-A. Nyman,
L. Pizzo, P. Shaver and N. Whyborn: Observations of the Sunyaev-
Zeldovich Effect Towards ROSAT Clusters with SEST and the
Italian Double-Channel Photometer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

OTHER ASTRONOMICAL NEWS

H.-M. Adorf, D. Egret, A. Heck, R. Jackson, A. Koekemoer, F. Murtagh

and D. Wells: The AstroWeb Database of Internet Resources.. ... 44
M. Pierre: Producing Multi-Wavelength Overlays with MIDAS. . ... .. .. 46
Science Data Analysis Group: The 94NOV Release of ESO-MIDAS .. 48

ANNOUNCEMENTS

European SL-9/Jupiter Workshop.. .. ... .. .. .. ... .. . . . . .. . .. .. .. . 50

ESO/MPA Workshop on "Spiral Galaxies in the Near-IR" 51
Workshop on "The Role of Dust in the Formation of Stars" ......... 51
ESO/ST-ECF Workshop on "Calibrating and Understanding HST and
ESO Instruments. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. ... .. .. . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. .. .. 51
New ESO Scientific Preprints (October-November 1994) 51
Staff Movements 52

MESSENGER INDEX 1994 (Nos. 75-78) .. .. .. . .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . 53

56