_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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                  
                                                          /                   
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

AO6

The deadline for proposals submitted in response to the sixth VSOP Announcement of Opportunity is Friday June 1st -- under two weeks away!! AO6 documentation is available from the VSOP web site. Lists of all previously observed and currently scheduled observations have been recently added: sorted by J2000 source name, observation date and observation code. Before preparing a VSOP proposal it is recommended that these lists be consulted to see what observations, if any, have been made or are scheduled for sources of interest.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

VSOP and VLBA polarization observations of the compact BL Lac object OJ287 have been recently published by Gabuzda & Gomez in MNRAS vol.320, L49 (2001). VSOP polarization observations of OJ287 were made at 6cm on April 4, 1999; fortuitously, polarization observations were also made with the VLBA at 7mm and 1.3cm only two weeks earlier. The ground-based 6cm total intensity and polarization images are typical of BL Lac objects: the source is dominated by a compact core--jet double structure, with the observed polarization electric vectors in the core and jet transverse to and aligned with the jet direction. The baselines to HALCA resolve both of these compact polarized regions: the ground-based "core" breaks up into several distinct components, demonstrating that this region is actually dominated by the contribution of bright, optically thin knots of jet emission.

A very similar structure is observed in the 1.3cm VLBA image. Comparison of the nearly simultaneous 1.3cm VLBA and 6cm VSOP images (which have comparable resolution) revealed a roughly 90 degree rotation in the polarization position angle for the core between the two wavelengths. This is the first time the theoretically predicted "flip" in polarization angle between the optically thick (6cm) to the optically thin (1.3cm) regimes has been directly observed; this would not have been possible without the ability to obtain high resolution observations at the relatively "long" wavelength of 6cm with VSOP.

VSOP-2 MEETINGS

The latest in the series of meetings planning for the VSOP-2 mission were held at ISAS earlier this week to discuss possible enhancements to the mission from some phase-referencing capability and a wider bandwidth downlink etc. The meeting was attended by participants from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Europe. A significant contribution was received from Europe at the meeting, with the presentation of 1,940 Euros to Hirax by Leonid Gurvits -- the first financial international contribution to the mission. Closer inspection revealed that the "Euros" were actually chocolate bars and not the real currency. The brief disappointment was quickly overcome by the realisation that these Euros were much more delicious than the real thing!

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi