OBSERVATORIO ASTRONOMICO RAMON MARIA ALLER


INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION COMMISSION 26 (DOUBLE STARS)
                  INFORMATION CIRCULAR No. 142  (OCTOBER 2000)                    





                                    NEW ORBITS                               

        ADS            Name      P (yr)      T       e      W(2000)      2000      Author
 RA 2000 DEC    n (deg)    a (")   i (deg)   w (deg)  Last ob.    2001      
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         HDO 181     221.00   1978.71    0.406   161.6      59.7 0.29   ALZNER
00090-5400     1.6290       0.420   154.1    25.3    1999.77     56.9 0.29   & ARGYLE

  819                A 1902       92.67   1964.91    0.842   121.1     198.5 0.340  DOCOBO
00593-0040     3.8848       0.346    56.9   270.2    1996.696   199.7 0.341  & LING

 1105                STF 115 AB  216.82   1984.60    0.931   138.7     172.7 0.175  DOCOBO
01233+5808     1.6604       0.863   98.3    128.5    1999.729   170.7 0.191  & LING
 
 1630                STT 38 BC    63.67   2015.50    0.927   109.6     104.8 0.465  DOCOBO
02039+4220     5.6542       0.302   109.8   183.4    1999.726   104.4 0.450  & LING

 3174                STF 535    1128.00   2046.00    0.495   114.0     279.7 1.132  HARTKOPF
04233+1123     0.3191       2.040   145.5   243.6    1999.8315  279.0 1.126  & MASON

 3614                HU 445      303.69   1956.51    0.376    73.2     121.1 0.420  SCARDIA
05017+2050     1.1854       0.592    45.0   323.0    2000.017   122.6 0.421    

 4929                BU 895      103.69   2009.30    0.050   140.6     148.6 0.252  HARTKOPF
06200+2826     3.4719       0.282    70.1    58.0    1999.8319  150.2 0.245  & MASON

                         MCA 27       38.90   1976.73    0.557   113.5     295.7 0.240  HARTKOPF
06384+2859     9.2545       0.159   119.5   343.3    1999.8319  294.0 0.236  & MASON

 5956               A 2123       77.31   1981.46    0.944   137.9     345.1 0.402  HARTKOPF
07171-1202     4.6566       0.684    79.7    80.2    1999.1603  345.9 0.402  & MASON

 6825               A 550        42.00   1952.70    0.026   170.4     127.6 0.072  HARTKOPF
08277-0425     8.5714       0.170   108.0    24.0    1999.8666  109.0 0.058  & MASON

                         I 10        142.00   2000.80    0.470   163.6     343.2 1.06   ALZNER
08447-5443     2.5352       1.990   105.2   188.0    1999.782   341.1 1.04   & ARGYLE

 7012                A 2552       82.38   1968.93    0.232    34.7      64.8 0.240  HARTKOPF
08487+0057     4.3700       0.239   128.4   166.0    1996.8665   62.3 0.247  & MASON

 7039                A 2473      116.70   2015.30    0.890   108.5      66.9 0.277  HARTKOPF
08507+1800     3.0848       0.476    68.0    89.1    1999.1578   68.5 0.273  & MASON

 9089                A 1097 AB   224.70   1920.69    0.105    60.1     241.1 0.437  SCARDIA
14020+5713     1.6021       0.409    49.7    45.7    1997.330   242.0 0.438    

                         COU 490      50.79   2013.10    0.672   104.1     339.8 0.183  MANTE
16450+2928     7.0876       0.169   136.1   269.9    1995.442   336.5 0.179    

10276               A 1143       88.20   1949.80    0.632   101.7     244.3 0.404  HARTKOPF
16566+5711     4.0816       0.290   136.4    39.2    1997.4004  243.2 0.399  & MASON
 
10341               BU 823      532.00   1954.70    0.417    66.2     152.2 0.919  HARTKOPF
17066+0039     0.6767       1.600    37.6    16.5    1998.5940  153.6 0.925  & MASON

11080         STT 524     686.00   1946.30    0.672    24.2     213.7 0.393  HARTKOPF
18075+1940     0.5247       0.584   129.7    57.8    1997.65    213.2 0.399  & MASON

11530         HO 87       118.57   1972.73    0.620    21.8      71.2 0.348  HARTKOPF
18386+1632     3.0362       0.310    34.2   269.0    1997.682    72.8 0.352  & MASON

              KUI 103      29.50   2007.66    0.742   132.1     104.2 0.854  MANTE
21000+4004    12.2034       0.589     0.1   130.5    1995.850   108.4 0.798    

              KUI 108      26.49   1974.72    0.333    12.3     223.8 0.099  HARTKOPF
21424+4105    13.5900       0.153   142.4   176.1    1997.5232  200.2 0.102  & MASON

16819         HU 298       30.73   1987.47    0.263   126.8     339.3 0.203  HARTKOPF
23322+0705    11.7149       0.173    31.0    57.0    1997.8293  346.3 0.202  & MASON




                        Report of IAU Commission 26
                    Business Meeting Manchester, England,
                               2000 August 14


President:               C. Scarfe (Canada)   
Vice-President:          W. Hartkopf (U.S.A.)   
Organizing Committee:    T. Armstrong (U.S.A.) - continuing   
                         F. Fekel (U.S.A.) - new   
                         P. Lampens (Belgium) - new   
                         J. Ling (Spain) - new    
                         R. Mathieu (U.S.A.) - continuing   
                         M. Valtonen (Finland) - continuing   
Past-president:          H. Zinnecker (Germany)   



Despite the fact that more than half the commission's members voted in the recent
election of vice-president Hartkopf and the new OC members listed above, and
despite the significance of several agenda items, the meeting was poorly
attended, with only nine members present, the same as at the previous meeting, in
Kyoto.  This report is based on notes taken by W.  Hartkopf and the author, the
latter of whom takes full responsibility for any inaccuracy.

The deaths of three members, C. Worley, P. Muller and C. Jaschek were
acknowledged with a moment of silence.  L. Loden's retirement and resignation
from the commission was noted.

The commission has added twelve new members, as follows.


             W. Chen (Taiwan)          B. Reipurth (U.S.A.)
             C. Clarke (U.K.)          R. Sagar (India)
             A. Ghez (U.S.A.)          M. Simon (U.S.A.
             P. Kroupa (Germany)       C. Terquem (France)
             O. Malkov (Russia)        A. Tarasov (Ukraine)
             B. Mason (U.S.A.)         L. Vaz (Brazil)
 
 

(Mason has been a consultant for the past three years, but has now joined the
I.A.U.  and becomes a full member of the commission.)  Some discussion followed
about how one might connect amateur double-star experts with the commission - the
names of A.  Alzner (Germany) and R.  Tanguay (U.S.A.)  were mentioned
specifically - but no conclusion was reached.  (It appears that I.A.U.  rules
prohibit their appointment as consultants.)

Zinnecker presented and briefly discussed the triennial report for the
Transactions.  He also reported on Symposium 200, the highly successful meeting
in Potsdam on Young Binary Stars, for which our commission was the primary
sponsor.  We also supported Colloquium 170, on Precise Stellar Radial Velocities,
held in Victoria in 1998, and a Symposium on Extragalactic Star Clusters, to be
held next year in Chile.  Finally, we were among the supporting commissions for
two Joint Discussions at this year's General Assembly, JD 5 on Mixing and
Diffusion in Stars and JD 13 on Hipparcos and the Luminosity Calibration of the
Nearer Stars, as well as a multi-commission meeting on the nomenclature of
companions to stars.

Hartkopf reported briefly on the commission's website, which has been moved from
Atlanta to Washington.  He encouraged members to visit it and welcomed
suggestions for matters to be included on the site.

Zinnecker presented a report from J.  Docobo on the Information Circulars.  It
was felt that they should be linked to ADS or Simbad, and that future
distribution should be done electronically as much as possible to reduce costs.
The possibility of including spectroscopic orbits was also raised.

Scarfe reported on the multi-commission meeting on nomenclature.  With the advent
of planet discoveries, a further level of complexity has been added to that
already engendered by the discoveries of binaries by observations at wavelengths
other than optical.  The potential discovery of many more from space missions
lends urgency to the task of finding a nomenclature scheme that encompasses those
new dicoveries and techniques.  In the end it was resolved to let the WDS group
tackle the problem over the next three years, with the support of our commission
and others with a stake in the outcome.

Mason reported on the current status of the WDS, including new data sources to be
included, and Hartkopf discussed the new orbit catalog, which is now nearly
complete.  It was suggested that a list of calibration objects be posted on the
web, and Hartkopf agreed to post a list of "Grade 1" objects with expanded
ephemerides.  An email message from Docobo stated that his group is also
preparing an orbit catalog.

Possible future meetings were discussed.  Topics included a Herschel bicentenary,
multiple stars, complememtary techniques (a sequel to the Atlanta Colloquium),
interaction of binaries with their environments, binaries as distance indicators,
and mass determination at the bottom of the main sequence.  Possible sites
included Mexico, Russia, the United States and the next General Assembly in
Australia.  Members wishing to comment on these ideas, or add their own, are
invited to contact Scarfe at scarfe@uvic.ca or by mail.

A very brief discussion of new instrument developments ensued.  We really needed
more time to discuss the variety of new instruments, both ground-based and in
space, which should lead to rapid growth of double star astronomy in the next few
years.  An extra session for such a discussion is being considered for the next
General Assembly, since several new instruments will be in operation by then.

Group photos were then taken of all business meeting participants, and the
meeting adjourned.

Colin Scarfe
President Commission 26



                            KAJ A. STRAND (1907-2000)


It is with great regret that I have to inform you of the death, in Washington, at
the age of 93, of Kaj Aa.  Strand, who served as president of our commission from
1964 to 1967.  He was born in Denmark in 1907, and emigrated to the United States
in 1938.  After serving in World War II, he spent several years at Yerkes
Observatory and Nothwestern University, before joining the U.S.  Naval
Observatory in 1958.  His tenure as Scientific Director there from 1963 until his
retirement in 1977 saw the observatory flourish in all areas of astrometry,
thanks to the superb astrometric telescope in Flagstaff for whose design and
construction he was primarily responsible, and which now justly bears his name.

I have written to his widow to express sympathy on behalf of the commission.  A
full obituary has been submitted by his colleague Steven Dick to the Washington
Post.

Colin Scarfe
President Commission 26
 


                                  ANNOUNCEMENT

The database SIDONIe (Site Informatique des etoiles Doubles de Nice) is now
available on the Web at the adress http://sidonie.obs-nice.fr SIDONIe recovers
all the measurements of doubles stars discovered by Paul Couteau and Paul Muller
as well as measurements made on visual couples north of -10° declination with
separations less than 1 arcsecond or which exibit obvious orbital motion.  The
data base was conceived to allows research on a specific objet (measurements,
orbits, references) or statical research to help the preparation of an observing
program.  This data base will be updated by contribution of new data coming from
published observations and orbits.

D. Bonneau
Scientific manager of Centre des Etoiles Doubles.
Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur.   



                       ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE IC EDITORS

Following the suggestion of the current IAU Commission 26 President, Dr.  Colin
Scarfe, beginning with No.143 (February, 2001) the Information Circular will
normally be delivered only by e-mail.

To those institutions and people who would like to receive a hard copy, it will
be sent only upon their request to the Editors.


   ===================================================================


The deadline for contributions to Information Circular No. 143 is:
    
                            February 15th 2001


         J. A. Docobo (oadoco@usc.es)
         J. F. Ling (oafana@usc.es)
         Tel. (81) 59 27 47
         Fax: (81) 59 70 54

         Observatorio Astronomico "R. M. Aller"
         P. O. Box 197
         Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
         SPAIN


ISSN: 1024-7769