Derek McNally

Comet Hale-Bopp and the Diffuse Interstellar Lines

As an illustration of the manner in whichserendipitous events can be used to obtain usefulscientific information, the reasons for observing,spectroscopically, the appulse of HD 12895 and CometHale-Bopp are discussed and the conclusions of thestudy are briefly presented.

From One G.A. to Another...

I first met Edith in 1970 at the Brighton General Assembly of the IAU. It was a meeting destined to have fateful consequences, for the IAU. Prior to 1970 I was able to enjoy General Assemblies with complete freedom of choice. I could attend scientific meetings as my interests dictated. Little did I know all that was to change; at the Brighton General Assembly, I became aware of Commission 46 The Teaching of Astronomy. I was a teacher of astronomy, so I went along. It was an interesting meeting academically but I said too much and I left as putative Vice-President for the next triennium; having been pressed hard jointly by Edith and Bart Bok, who could withstand such a pressure group ?

Time to clear up the astronomical environment

Astronomical observations from the ground and space are under serious threat from the unrestrained growth of the technology of modern life. Optical astronomy is threatened by rising levels of light pollution, pollution of the atmosphere and space debris. Radio astronomy is under severe pressure from the explosive growth of the telecommunications industry, both from ground-based and space transmissions. Space astronomy is threatened by the growing hazard of space debris. A recent meeting of the international astronomy community in Paris called for considerable steps to be taken to reduce and perhaps reverse such impacts.

Joint Commission Meeting 5, JCM5: Spectroscopy of Individual Stars in Globular Clusters and the Early Chemical Evolution of our Galaxy

The long lasting interest of astronomers in globular clusters and their star population was once more proved during the scientific sessions at the IAU XX General Assembly. Nothing but, three meetings on globular clusters have been organized; one meeting (CM37/3) was chaired by T. Loyd Evans and was devoted to “The abundance spread within globular clusters”. Another meeting (JCM7), directed by Pierre Demarque gave us an overview of: “Stars clusters in the Magellanic Clouds”. The third meeting, organized by G. Cayrel de Strobel, has concentrated of what can be done nowadays in high signal/noise spectroscopy of individual stars in globular clusters. The great progress in high resolution spectroscopy of very faint objects has allowed to obtain in recent years a wealth of new results on detailed abundances of cluster stars. These results come principally from observations with CCD detector systems on 4m-class telescopes, as well as from the explosive growth of VAX class computers for both, data analysis and theoretical modeling.

Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds

A report of this Meeting will appear in Transactions of the International Union, Volume XXB, as part of the report of Commission 37, Star Clusters and Associations.