Edited by Peter Lawson

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Editorial: 9 December 1999

News

99.12.23

- A School on Space and Ground Based Optical/Infrared Interferometry will be hosted by NEVEC/ESO/ESA to be held in Leiden, September 18-22, 2000. The First Announcement has been circulated.

99.12.21

- The Advance Program for SPIE Conf. 4006 Interferometry in Optical Astronomy is now available. A full-day course on Optical Interferometry in Astronomy will be taught by Chris Haniff and Tim Bedding on the Friday of the conference.

99.12.15

- Photographs of the Keck Interferometer have been made available courtesy of Gerard van Belle.

99.12.10

- On 8 December 1999 the CHARA Array acquired starlight fringes in H-Band for the first time, using the recently commissioned 34 m baseline.

99.12.1

- The complete set of lectures from the 1999 Michelson Summer School is now available on RealVideo at The NASA Quest Site. These lectures should be seen with their accompanying Viewgraphs. Not all viewgraphs are available. Those remaining should be made available by the end of January 2000. Please send comments or suggestions concerning the School to lawsonhuey.jpl.nasa.gov.

99.11.24

First starlight fringes at the CHARA Array were obtained Tuesday 23 November at 1:00 am local time (Courtesy of T. ten Brummelaar and H.A. McAlister).

99.11.23

Stellar interferometry with a Celestron C-11 is described by Franz Kerschbaum (text in German).

99.11.17

NASA expects to distribute to prospective contractors a Request for Proposals (RFP) for new architecture studies for the Terrestrial Planet Finder. The RFP will be released in January 2000. A draft version of the Statement of Work for the RFP can be found at http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/rfp/tpf.

99.11.17

SIM Grid Star Workshop has been announced for 20-21 January 2000. Primarily intended for those responding to NRA 99-OSS-04. The aims of the workshop are to characterize suitable stars for the SIM astrometric grid and to define selection criteria for large numbers of grid stars for the Space Interferometry Mission.

99.11.05

- University Lectureships advertised at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK). At least one of the lectureships is earmarked for the Astrophysics Group and may provide an opportunity for individuals wishing to join the COAST team. Application deadline is 7 January 2000. (Courtesy of Chris Haniff.)

99.11.04

- Description of Stephan's Quintet from the Observatoire de Marseille, including a wonderful photo of the Foucault reflector that Stephan used to estimate stellar diameters from 1873 to 1874.

99.11.01

- Examples of Internal fringes at the CHARA Array, courtesy of Theo ten Brummelaar.

99.10.26

- GIF Animation of Jupiter and Saturn as seen through the newly commissioned S2 Telescope of the CHARA Array. (Courtesy of Theo ten Brummelaar.)

99.10.19

- The first lectures from the Michelson Summer School are available on RealVideo at The NASA Quest Site. These lectures should be seen with their accompanying Viewgraphs.

99.10.14

- The initial funding for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory interferometer has been approved by Congress. The $3.5M granted for FY2000 will allow design work to begin this year. The current status of the project is described in the article "Funding Approved for Observatory" in this weekend's Albuquerque Journal. (Courtesy of Peregrine McGehee.)

99.10.06

- Internal H-band fringes were acquired for the first time within the CHARA Array this past week.

99.10.05

- The Michelson Fellowship Program has invited applications for its 2000 Michelson Postdoctoral Fellowship and Graduate Student Fellowship programs with an application deadline of 15 December 1999.

99.09.23

- The Michelson Fellowship Program has awarded the 1999 graduate student fellowships to Erin Sabatke (Univ. of Arizona), Philip Hinz (Univ. of Arizona), and Ben Lane (Caltech). See JPL Press Release Three Planet-hunters Earn NASA'S Michelson Fellowships.

99.09.23

- Photos celebrating 10 years of interferometry at JPL courtesy of Gerard van Belle.

99.09.20

- An image of fringes recorded at K-band by the GI2T interferometer is available courtesy of Denis Mourard and Gerd Weigelt.

99.09.14

- Antoine Labeyrie, Professor of the College de France, describes his current projects and interests - including densified pupil imaging and a ground precusor to a large hyper-telescope in space - from his Home Page at the Observatoire de Haute Provence.

99.09.03

- The Ph.D.thesis Investigation of Herbig Ae/Be stars in the near-infrared with a long baseline interferometer by Rafael Millan-Gabet was defended in July at the Physics and Astronomy Dept. of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

99.08.25

- Several days ago the GI2T obtained first fringes on the sky using its new optical table, REGAIN. Fringes were obtained simultaneously using a visible spectrograph and with a visiting infrared instrument from Gerd Weigelt's group of the Max-Planck Institut in Bonn. Fringes were recorded on numerous stars and baselines. Preliminary announcement in French in the Forum HRA, with more details soon to be available at the GI2T Web Pages. (Courtesy of Denis Mourard.)

99.08.25

- ESA Science Newsletter of 22 June 1999 describes the financial constraints of ESA's planned Cornerstone Missions and suggests that ESA may be forced to enter into partnerships to complete their objectives.

99.08.25

- David Buscher has been appointed to a fixed term lectureship in Physics at the University of Cambridge in England. He has a 5 year lectureship with the Astrophysics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory and will begin the lectureship this academic year. (Courtesy of Chris Haniff.)

99.08.25

- Photographs taken during the Michelson Interferometry Summer School's trip to Mount Wilson (10 August 1999) are available courtesy of Joey Seymore of the CHARA Array: Roll #1 and Roll #2.

99.08.11

- Goddard Space Flight Center has begun a new initiative in X-ray interferometry for astronomy. Those interested in participating in this activity should contact Nick White at nwhite@lheapop.gsfc.nasa.gov for more details on job opportunities.

99.08.02

- The Ph.D.thesis Infrared Imaging with COAST by John Young was recently accepted at Cambridge University.

99.08.02

- Internal fringes were acquired for the first time at the CHARA Array, using an artificial star. An example record of internal fringes was provided courtesy of Theo ten Brummelaar.

99.07.19

- The Nova-ESO VLTI Expertise Centre is seeking to employ two more researcher later this year.

99.07.09

- The FLUOR Web pages have been revised to include new results, new papers, a photographic tour, and more. Update your links to this page.

99.07.08

- The SUSI Home Page has been updated to include numerous photographs.

99.07.08

- The University of Sydney is advertising a Professor Harry Messel Research Fellowship for research in the School of Physics. Prof. John Davis (davis@physics.usyd.edu.au) is seeking qualified applicants interested in optical interferometry to join the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) programme through this fellowship. Application deadline is 1st August 1999.

99.06.16

- The TPF Book is now available. Send requests for copies to Christian.A.Lindensmith@jpl.nasa.gov with the subject heading "Book Mailing". The chapters of the book are also available as PDF files at the TPF Book Web Page.

99.06.16

- The SIM Book is now available. Send requests for copies to Rudolf.Danner@jpl.nasa.gov with the subject heading "Book Mailing".

99.06.09

- Shockwave Interactive Interferometry Demo on the SIM Web Pages illustrates how astrometry is performed with interferometers.

99.06.07

- The SPIE conference on Interferometry in Optical Astronomy has been announced for 27-31 March 2000. Abstracts due 13 September 1999.

99.06.07

- There are jobs galore for aspiring interferometrists. Please see the listing in the OLBIN Jobs page.

99.05.21

- Michelson's 20 ft Interferometer Moved from its resting place. Story and photographs courtesy of Prof. H.A. McAlister.

99.05.21

- Photographs of the VLT Opening Symposium are available courtesy of Gerard van Belle.

99.05.11

- The International School of Space Science will be held August 31 - September 10, 1999 in L'Aquila, Italy, on the subject of High Resolution Observations in Astronomy. Application forms and course outline are available at the ISSS Home Page.

99.05.10

- A Postdoctoral Research Physicist is sought to work on the Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI). See the advertisement in the May 1999 AAS Job Register.

99.05.10

- The conference Darwin and Astronomy will be held in Stockholm Sweden, 17-19 November 1999.

99.04.29

- NASA's Origins Program awards its first Fellowship. Rafael Millan-Gabet has been awarded the Michelson Fellowship to conduct work at IOTA. See the NASA Press Release of April 12, 1999 describing the award.

99.04.19

- First annoucement of the Michelson Interferometry Summer School to be held at Pasadena California, 9-13 August 1999.

99.04.14

- Pictures taken on Mount Wilson show the recent fall of snow. See the CHARA Array Photos Page on OLBIN.

99.04.13

- The Physics department at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez has a tenure-track junior faculty position open for August 1999 for development of the interferometer at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory. See the OLBIN Jobs Page for more details.

99.04.12

- Aperture masking observations at the Keck Telescope of the Wolf-Rayet star WR 104 are reported by P.G. Tuthill, J.D. Monnier and W.C. Danchi in the 8 April 1999 issue of Nature. Also see the web page describing The Twisted Tail of Wolf-Rayet 104 (courtesy of W.C. Danchi).

99.04.01

- As described in the AAS Job Register of April 1999, there are two positions being offered at Caltech for the development of instrumentation and techniques for nulling interferometry relating to the Keck Interferometer and SIM. See the OLBIN Jobs Page for more information.

99.03.25

- A Postdoctoral position is available for recent French PhD students to work at IOTA, as described in the announcement by Vincent Coudé du Foresto. Candidates for this position must be French citizens. The position may commence in September 1999, for a maximum duration of 12 months. The application deadline is 30 April 1999. Interested applicants please contact Vincent Coudé du Foresto (foresto@hplyot.obspm.fr).

99.03.25

- A list of Dissertations in stellar interferometry has been added to the OLBIN pages.

99.03.12

- The 4-m baseline MIRA 1.1 Interferometer will be closed down at the end of March 1999 in preparation for the development of the MIRA 1.2 Interferometer, which will have a 30-m baseline and be located nearby on the grounds of the NAOJ, Mitaka, Japan.

99.03.03

- The first telescope in the CHARA array has been installed in its housing at Mnt Wilson. Photographs from the CHARA Web pages show this event taking place.

99.02.25

- The prototype active mirror for the OVLA project is undergoing tests at the Observatoire d'Haute Provence. Photographs from the Web Page of Luc Arnold show the mirror as seen from below and from the side.

99.02.24

- Photographs of the CHARA Array taken on 23 February 1999 are available courtesy of Gerard van Belle.

99.02.24

- The first CHARA Telescope has arrived at Mnt Wilson and will be installed in its housing in the week of 1 March 1999.

99.02.17

- The Third 8.2 m VLT mirror has arrived at Paranal. See ESO Press Release that describes the event.

99.02.16

- The Programme National Haute Résolution Angulaire en Astrophysique in France is organizing a forum to be held 14-16 June 1999. An outline of the meeting and a preliminary schedule are now available (text in French only).

99.02.12

- Michelson Interferometry Summer School will be held on the Campus of Caltech August 9-13, 1999, in Pasadena California, and will include tours of the Mnt Wilson and Mnt Palomar Observatories.

99.02.03

- The OLBIN Web pages are now listed within AstroWeb under Newsgroups and Educational Resources.

99.01.22

- Photographs of Helicopter at CHARA Array installing telescope housings. Courtesy of Theo ten Brummelaar. This event was described beforehand in the Los Angeles Times of January 21, 1999 (Metro page B2) and was covered by local television stations on the day.

99.01.21

- Photograph of Michelson's 20ft Interferometer (86 Kb) taken in June 1997.

99.01.20

- Photographs of the Mark III before and after recent renovations for the CHARA Array.

99.01.20

- Photographs of the construction of the CHARA Array are now available on this site.

99.01.13

- JPL Universe articles describe progress of interferometers in the Origins program (Origins set to look beyond solar system) and in the New Millenium Program (DS1 kicks off New Millenium).

99.01.11

- The Terrestrial Planet Finder has a new Homepage.

99.01.11

- JPL is sponsoring the Michelson Fellowship Program including Postdoctoral Fellowships, Student Fellowships, and a Distinguished Lecture Series.

99.01.11

- Gene Serabyn at JPL has demonstrated nulling to 20,000:1 using a polarization-flipping arrangement and laser light.

Last Updated 25 August 1999