_                   
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      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/         
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--            
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _            
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|           
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                  
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      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

VLBA PRE-LAUNCH SURVEY

The results from a VLBA snap-shot survey, undertaken over 24 hours in June 1996 as part of a program to select sources for the VSOP Survey Program, are now available on-line. Three hundred and seventy-four AGN north of a declination of -44 degrees were observed at 5 GHz, and the results available include color and contour images, plots of the correlated flux density versus (u,v)-distance, and improved positions for 62 sources. The results, to be published in ApJSupp, are available from /astro/halca/vsop/VLBApls and several mirror sites.

AO4 RESULTS

Grades and comments for AO4 proposals are now being collated, and the principal investigators or their designated contact person will be e-mailed the results for their proposal before the end of this month.

ADDRESS UPDATE

PIs and contact people of VSOP proposals -- from AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4 -- are reminded of the need to notify the VSOP Science Operations Group (by e-mail to vsog@vsop.isas.ac.jp) if there is any change in their contact details. (This also applies to those on the VSOP news distribution list -- almost every issue "bounces" from someone who has changed e-mail addresses!)

VSOP TEAM

The VSOP team has been boosted (in volume, if nothing else!) by the return of David Murphy (JPL) to ISAS as a visiting professor for three months. Dave will mainly be working on planning for VSOP-2, but has already helped upgrade the web page showing predicted (u,v) coverages for upcoming VSOP observations.

ORIGAMI

Informal discussions on possible collaboration for future space VLBI missions were held at ISAS last week between Japanese and US colleagues. During the meeting, Art Chmielewski presented "Hirax" Hirabayashi with kit to build a paper model of the ARISE spacecraft. This quickly led to suggestions for the ORIGAMI project - the Orbiting Radio Interferometry with Ground Arrays MIssion, the first ever satellite with a deployable paper antenna!

CONFERENCES

IAU Symposium 206, "Cosmic Masers: from protostars to blackholes", will be held from 5-10th March 2001 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Further details are available from http://lynx.ccne.ufsm.br. Overlapping with IAU 206 is a conference on the "New Century of X-ray Astronomy" will be held in Yokohama from 6-8 March, 2001. More details on the program are available from http://www.astro.isas.ac.jp/conference/newcentx/index-e.html

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi