_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      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  ***                        <)                     
 

Previous Issue Number 24 29th September 1995 Following Issue

FIRST FRINGES!

On the 14th of September, first fringes were found at the VSOP correlator! The data-set which produced the first fringes was a 22 GHz observation of water masers in W49N made at the end of June last year. The 400 km Nobeyama (45m)-- Mizusawa (10m) baseline data was used. Data was recorded in K4 format: 16 channels each of 2 MHz bandwidth with 1-bit sampling. The FX correlator (so-called because it performs the Fourier Transform (F) before the cross- multiplication (X)) was built by Fujitsu. Software debugging began at the correlator, at the National Astronomical Observatory in Mitaka, last month, and was assisted by the use of the one-baseline correlator, NAOCO, on loan from the Mizusawa Observatory of the NAO.

The first fringes have been posted on the VSOP World Wide Web site (reached through either the Milestones page or the Whats New page). The commemorative signed version is also posted, though a knowledge of Japanese is required for an understanding of the comments!

IACG MEETING IN HOKKAIDO

An IACG (Inter-Agency Consultative Group for Space Science) meeting was held in the first week of September in Sapporo, and Frank Jordan, co-chair of Panel-1 (Radio Astronomy), gave a report to the Panel-1 meeting on the VSOP project. The IACG contains representatives from ISAS, ESA, IKI and NASA.

SEVEN WEEKS AND COUNTING...

Proposals for Phase 1 General Observing Time with the VSOP satellite and ground radio telescopes must reach ISAS by Friday, 17th November -- seven weeks from today!

A NEW CLASS OF RADIO ASTRONOMER?

Last issue we reported Esko Valtaoja's definition of HIghly RAdiating unknown sources: HIRAXes. It may not be clear to all our readers that Hisashi Hirabayashi, VSOP Project Scientist, is better known by the nick-name Hirax. In fact, there are probably people under the misapprehension that Hirax is Hirabayashi-san's real name! Hirax points out that he was destined to work at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, as his given name contains within it "ISAS". This should not, however, be taken to imply any link between Hirax and the Irish Republican Army!


Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi