Dust in galaxies can be mapped either by the FIR/submillimeter emission, the optical or infrared reddening of starlight, or the extinction of a known background source. ... We find that distant galaxies are predominantly in low-extinction sections marked by the color maps, indicating that their number depends both on the cloud cover of Spitzer-resolved dust structures, mostly the spiral arms, and a diffuse, unresolved underlying disk. ...

... OCR by H.Andernach 1/96, to be proof-read) This is the first of a series of papers presenting results of a 10-GHz radio continuum survey of the galactic plane region using the 45-m telescope at Nobeyama. ... Weak Nonthermal Sources: A comparison with the Bonn S-GHz survey reveals a number of weak nonthermal sources near the galactic plane. ... For this reason we conducted a survey of the galactic plane region at 10 GHz using the 45-m radio telescope at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO). ...

... A new IRAF task has been developed that automatically identifies linear (line-like) features in an image or set of images. ... In order to automatically detect linear features, the first step is to select pixels in the image (Fig. 1 , left panel) that fall within a given data value range. ... Another aspect of extended linear features is that the image space pixels that describe them are in some way adjacent to one another and have a minimum and maximum length. ...

... A typical spectrum (such as Figure 1) shows the classic triple-peaked spectrum, which is associated with masers located in a circumnuclear disk (e.g. NGC 4258, Nakai et al., ... The Circinus galaxy megamasers are known to be variable on timescales of weeks and months with individual maser features having a lifetime of around one year. ... Most of the masers observed showed some degree of variability over an hour while one feature displayed a doubling of its flux density over about 10 minutes. ...

... Maps of 21cm emission are dominated by warm H i, and most observations of H i absorption against continuum sources are limited to discrete points. ... Current Results At right are maps of H i emission, HISA, and 12 CO emission in the eastern 25% of the survey, given as projections along the velocity (Figure 1) and latitude (Figure 2) axes. ... 2000, A. J., submitted Figure 1: H i Survey Map (`; b): H i 21cm brightness integrated over all velocity channels; white is bright and black is faint. ...

... Estimation of the residual Soft Proton flare contamination . ... The script can be run on any EPIC event files (MOS1, MOS2 and/or pn), to estimate the amount of *residual* Soft Proton (SP) flare contamination, i.e. it should only be used *after* attempts have been made to clean the event files for SPs using GTI filtering. ... The higher the in-FOV to out-of-FOV ratio, the more the file is contaminated by SPs: . ... File is not contaminated by SPs. ... File is slightly contaminated by SPs. ...

... The SMS program is a critical endeavor to investigate whether the predictions of standard cold dark matter cosmology are consistent with the observed matter distribution in the Milky Way halo. It is the deepest, most extended search for optically elusive dwarf satellite galaxies and tidal streams to date, covering the entire Southern hemisphere. ... However only a few dwarf satellites have been found around the Milky Way to date - 22 dwarfs compared to 500-10,000 predicted by theory (Klypin et al. ...

... Telescopes . ... Superb optical performance coupled with time proven computerized pointing and tracking has made the LX200 ACF series a best-seller in the high-performance telescope class. ... Meade's revolutionary LS LightSwitchтДв series of telescopes use advanced technologies to do what no other consumer telescopes have done before: take all the hassle out of using a telescope. ... LX - Rear Thread Aluminum Dust Cover . ... Rear Thread Aluminum Dust Cover for SC and ACF optical tubes. ...

... 2001 July 25 . Hot Gas Halo Detected Around Galaxy NGC 4631 . ... Explanation: Is our Milky Way Galaxy surrounded by a halo of hot gas? ... Since NGC 4631 is similar to the Milky Way , this observation indicates that our own Galaxy is indeed surrounded by a halo of hot X-ray emitting gas, although we are too close to clearly differentiate it from more nearby extended X-ray sources. The clusters of massive stars probably heat the halo gas. ... About APOD | ...

Detected Supernovae . The search have produced till now the detections of 4 SNe. ... This result highlights the power of infrared monitoring in detecting Obscured SNe and indicates that optical surveys are probably missing a significant fraction of SNe, especially in obscured systems such as starburst galaxies. ... In Fig. we show the archival SOFI image of NGC3256 (left) and the first image obtained in 2001 (right) where SN2001db has been detected. ...

... In principle, two observers on the ground can tell, by comparing the position of the same auroral arc against the background stars. ... The display stretches across Canada; just below it, in the middle of the picture, are the lights of Chicago, next to Lake Michigan. ... The Canadian scientific satellite Isis-2 (1971) carried an auroral imaging camera and discovered the diffuse aurora, a broad ribbon around the auroral oval, too spread-out to be noticed from the ground. ... Auroral Acceleration . ...

ROSAT OBSERVATIONS OF PSR 0355+54 and PSR 1642--03 1 Patrick Slane Harvard­Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA ABSTRACT PSR