_          
                                             |_|         
 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  ***               <)             

TYPHOONS

September and October are traditionally typhoon season in Japan, though this year the typhoons started arriving as early as late June! Earlier this week Typhoon no. 19 headed towards Kyushu, causing fears that the 20m antenna used for commanding HALCA and other ISAS satellites might be put out of action by the high winds. Indeed, one tracking pass was lost due to the typhoon, but the next day commanding was able to be carried out and co-observing with the EVN went ahead as scheduled. The word `typhoon', by the way, is derived from two Chinese characters: `tai', meaning great, and `fung' meaning wind. The word has been slightly modified in Japanese and is pronounced `taifuu'.

M-V, THE MOVIE

A 66-minute documentary on the development and first launch of the M-V rocket had its premiere at ISAS on September 10. The launch of M-V-1, with HALCA (Muses-B) as the payload, is the highlight of the movie and the atmosphere of the occasion is captured well on film. An English version of the movie is being prepared and is expected to be available from next month. The same production company is putting the finishing touches to a movie focusing on the VSOP project, which will be completed next year.

VSOG STAFF

Nan Rendong, from the Beijing Observatory, has taken up a six-month visiting professorship with the VSOP team at the National Astronomical Observatory in Mitaka, and Leonid Gurvits, from the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, has just commenced a visiting professorship at ISAS for three months. The two were welcomed with a party at Mitaka during the week, which also served as a farewell to Victor Migenes, whose two-year position at NAO finishes at the end of this month.

NEW UNITS?

During the Kyoto IAU General Assembly in August, `The Sidereal Times' was published daily with a variety of serious reports as well as some more light-hearted information from Seth Shostak and his co-editors. Following their lead, we note that in science we use units which in many cases originate from physicists's names, with the majority of physicists thus honored being from the northern hemisphere. One of VISC resolutions in Kyoto was to use the `Jauncey' instead of `Jansky' for measuring the flux density of southern hemisphere sources. Brightness temperatures will still be expressed in Kelvin, though for southern sources this will honour Kelvin Wellington!

 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi