Several catalogues of radio sources at 408 MHz have been prepared from observations made with the Molonglo cross telescope. These include (in chronological order) ‘The Molonglo Radio Source Catalogue 1’, the MC1, by Davies et al. (1973), the MC2 and MC3 by Sutton et al. (1974), MC4 by Clarke et al. (1976), ‘The Molonglo Deep Sky Survey of Radio Sources’ by Robertson (1977a,b,d) and ‘The Molonglo Reference Catalogue of Radio Sources’ (MRC) by Large et al. (1981). The catalogues MC1-4 cover selected areas of sky to a flux density limit of ~0.2 Jy to 0.3 Jy. The MRC includes extragalactic radio sources between δ = +18° and δ = −85° and is essentially complete at S408 = 1.00 Jy with raany sources to ˜0.7 Jy. The Wyllie (1969a,b) scale of flux density is used throughout.

Radio maps of extragalactic radio sources made with the Westerbork, Cambridge and V.L.A. synthesis telescopes have revealed collimated jets extending from the cores to the radio lobes (see Miley 1980 for a review). These observations have provided outstanding support for ‘beam models’ of extragalactic radio sources (Scheuer 1974, Blandford and Rees 1974). Two crucial pieces of information to emerge from high resolution observations are the behaviours of jet full width half maximum (FWHM) and surface brightness with angular distance from the core. Such data have for instance been provided by Formalont et al. (1980) and Bridle et al. (1981) for the jets in 3C-31 and by Willis et al. (1981) and Bridle (1981) for the jets in NGC 315. An important point is that the relationship between jet surface brightness and FWHM is not in general as predicted by simple magnetohydrodynamic models (Bridle 1981).

We present here the low-dispersion optical spectra of 295 QSO candidates. The great majority of the objects were originally selected as QSOs from the Parkes 2700 MHz radio survey, although we have also included spectra of several optically selected QSOs. A few of the QSO candidates are now better described as radio galaxies and BL Lac objects. This collection of spectra is not suitable for statistical studies unless due consideration is given to selection effects.

Over the last two decades there has been an accumulation of exciting evidence that appears to show that, as early as 5000 years ago, people in Britain were making precise observations of the Sun, Moon, and stars, and studying small perturbations in the lunar motion. Structures such as Stonehenge, and the s thousands of other megalithic sites in Britain, are then seen as prehistoric observations. Within these, data would be (accumulated to enable the prediction of celestial phenomena such as eclipses, and allow the construction of a calendar. Recently however a small number of rigorous statistical studies of the sites have cast doubt on the astronomical hypotheses, and have posed the question of whether some of the support for these hypotheses has been generated by well-intentioned but over-enthusiastic selections of chance alignments. In this review, the arguments and counter arguments are presented and examined, and we see what can be salvaged from the astronomical hypotheses after the statistical smoke has cleared.

A brief description of astronomy in New Zealand both amateur and professional, past and present is given, with particular emphasis on the work carried out by the two professional establishments; the Carter Observatory, Wellington and the Mt John University Observatory of the University of Canterbury.

The distribution of mass in a spiral galaxy is usually inferred from its rotation curve. The curve is most conveniently measured using part of its extreme population I such as HI or HII. This has a low velocity dispersion so that the observed tangential motion is in the absence of non-circular motions (van der Kruit and Allen 1978; Bosma 1981a, b) close to the circular velocity required to balance the gravitational force. The main difficulty is that for a detailed interpretation of the rotation curve one has to make assumptions on some general properties of the mass distribution, even though it is true that one can estimate the total mass within the last measured point to an accuracy of about a factor two. That of axial symmetry is only the simplest of assumptions. On the basis of the light distribution with a usually prominent disk component one often assumes that the mass distribution is also basically highly flattened.

We present a catalogue of 668 major metre-wavelength radio events. The data was collected from dynamic spectra (taken at Dapto, N.S.W. until 1966 and at Culgoora, N.S.W. thereafter) by means of a radio spectrograph, which records the intensity of radio emission as a function of both frequency and time. A description of the major types of metre-wavelength phenomena can be found in Wild et al. (1963), Kundu (1965), Wild and Smerd (1972) and Kruger (1979), and details of the radio spectrograph in Sheridan (1963, 1967) and Labrum (1972).

This is the second of a series of papers presenting detailed optical spectra for QSOs and strong-emission-line galaxies identified with radio sources from a selected area (−15° to −23° in declination) of the Molonglo Reference Catalogue (MRC: Large et al. 1981). The catalogue is complete to 1 Jy at 408 MHz although it contains many weaker sources. First results were reported by Hunstead et al. (1978, Paper I) and a summary was given by Hunstead (1979). Results have also been given by White et al. (1980) for spectra of QSOs identified with radio sources to a much deeper level of 88 mJy from a small strip within the larger selected area.

Savage et al. (1977) found that the radio source PKS 1448-232 coincided with a stellar object of about magnitude 16.4 having an ultraviolet excess. A low resolution spectrum obtained with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) confirmed this object as a QSO with zem = 2.22 and revealed many absorption lines short-ward of the La emission. Consequently this object was included in a programme of spectroscopy at intermediate resolution with the AAT to investigate QSO absorption lines. Savage et al. have given a finding chart with an optical position of 14h48m09s.3, −23°17′10″ (1950.0). The radio fluxes are 0.40 Jy at 2.7 GHz and 0.31 Jy at 5.0 GHz.

The original concept of the International Halley Watch was presented by Louis Friedman to NASA in 1979. The intent was to maximise the scientific value of ground-based and space studies of Comet Halley. This initial suggestion met with a very positive response and has developed into a smooth organization, principally concerned with rapid communication and promoting co-operation between scientists in a wide range of disciplines. The main aim here is to put the IHW in perspective; further details of its origin and evolution can be found in Newsletter No. 1, from which the following three diagrams are taken: To quote from Newsletter No. 1 ‘The most important elements in the IHW are the Professional Observers and the Discipline Specialist Teams. Without the Observers, there can be no Halley Watch, and without the Discipline Specialists, there would be no co-ordination of observations.’ If there are any professional observers who have not yet been contacted by a Discipline Specialist it is recommended that they make their interest known immediately.

The study of radio galaxies situated within clusters of galaxies has become a broad field, with hundreds of papers published in the last few years. This review will therefore be restricted mainly to consideration of the interactions between the extended components of radio sources in clusters and the diffuse gas (intracluster medium, ICM) which occurs in clusters. In particular, attention will be focused on what we can learn about the ICM from this interaction, in conjunction with other data such as X-ray observations. In the case of quasars in clusters of galaxies the emphasis is rather different, so discussion of this topic is deferred to section 6.

The Culgoora circular array (CCA) is a 3-km-diameter ring of 96 reflectors operating at 80, 160 and 327 MHz. It has an effective collecting area of ~ 6000 m2 and achieves angular resolutions (full half-power beamwidths) of 3’.70, 1 ‘.85 and 0’.92 at the three operating frequencies. During the interval 1978-1981 we have used the CCA to make 80 and 160 MHz measurements of a comprehensive selection of radio sources which were detected during various complete surveys of clusters of galaxies (see Table 1). We have combined our low-frequency intensity measurements with other available higher-frequency flux data to compute accurate radio spectra. The 160 MHz contour maps for many of the cluster fields were used to find positions and angular sizes for the associated radio sources.

This meeting provides the first opportunity for me to talk about the Australia Telescope as an established project. It has been formally approved at all levels and is now under way (see Fig. 1).

For many reasons, it is important to have a sound body of reliable photometry for the globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Given the striking appearance of the globular clusters and their historical and astrophysical interest, it is perhaps surprising that the available photoelectric photometry for globular clusters is of mixed quality (see Harris and Racine 1979). Here I present a homogeneous body of photometry through a single aperture and in the UBV system for 31 globular clusters south of declination +12°.

Two recent observational surveys of the Ca II resonance lines (Zarro and Rodgers 1983; Linsky et al. 1979) illustrate the great diversity of line profile shapes found in the spectra of cool stars. This diversity reflects a corresponding wide range in the underlying chromospheric properties of the stars. There are, however, three well-marked systematic trends in the shapes of Ca II line profiles which presumably reflect systematic trends in chromospheric properties. One of these, the Wilson-Bappu effect (Wilson and Bappu 1957), describes the strong correlation betweeen the width of the emission core (see Figure 1) and the absolute visual magnitude of the star. Despite much work, it is still not clear whether this is due primarily to systematic changes of velocity fields (e.g. Hoyle and Wilson 1958) or optical depths (e.g. Jefferies and Thomas 1959) in stellar chromospheres.

In this paper we present maps showing the distribution of HCO+ (J= 1→0 transition at 89.18855 GHz) in the direction of NGC 6334 as a function of radial velocity, lhe observations were carried out in May-June 1979 as part of a larger program of HCO+ observations (Batchelor et al. 1980, 1981) using the Epping 4-m millimetre-wave radio telescope.

Magnetic fields of about 1012 G have now been measured in several astrophysical objects (Trümper etal. 1978, Wheaton et al. 1979, Mazets et al. 1981). In the case of pulsating X-ray sources, the presence of a companion star indicates that accretion is probably the energy source for the X-rays.

It is generally agreed that early-type stars, and hence their HII regions, appear to develop preferentially in dense concentrations within molecular clouds. These parent molecular clouds owe their existence in two ways to the dust grains in the interstellar gas, a component which comprises about 1% by mass. First, dust grains provide stable surfaces upon which hydrogen atoms can come together to form molecules. Then, once formed, the molecules are protected in cloud interiors by dust absorption of the dissociating ultraviolet radiation which pervades the low-density interstellar medium.

Figure 1 is a plot of spin angular momentum, J, against mass, m, for some of the main sequence stars, the planets and the asteroids.