The Journal of Astronomical Data 2007, Volume 13 ABSTRACTS =============================================================== [JAD 13, 1] Erratum: An overview of the photometric events, trends and brightenings of eta Carinae A. M. van Genderen, C. Sterken, W. H. Allen and W. S. G. Walker We present a catalogue of galaxy structures (groups and clusters) found in an area of 5,000 square degrees in the southern hemisphere. The catalogue, which we call the PF Catalogue, was created by making use of galaxy positions and magnitudes given in the Muenster Red Sky Survey (MRSS). We applied an automated procedure for structure finding, involving the Voronoi tessellation. The completeness limit for galaxies in the MRSS is r_F=18.3 mag. Therefore, the present version of the PF Catalogue is based on galaxies brighter than this limit. In order to be included in the PF Catalogue, a structure must have at least 10 members in a magnitude range m_3, m_3+3^m. We found 6188 structures which are listed in the present catalogue. The PF Catalogue contains positions, radii, areas, number of galaxies within the magnitude limit m_3, m_3+3^m, a number estimation of background galaxies; ellipticity and position angle for each structure, as well as the magnitudes of the first, the third and the tenth galaxies in a structure, taken from the MRSS. -------------------- [JAD 13, 2] Observations of UU Cancri P. Kalv, T. Oja and V. Harvig We present UBVR photometric observations of the 96-day binary system UU Cancri (K4 III) obtained in 1972-1994. A relatively large scatter in the orbital light curves turned out to be intrinsic with a modulating cycle lasting at least 8000 days. Using all available archived photographic and visual observations covering nearly 100 years, we find the orbital period of the system to be constant. This fact, together with the pattern of the colour curves, makes the existence of a powerful accretion disk in the system improbable. -------------------- [JAD 13, 3] Johnson BV and Cousins RI photometry of some cool giant stars Saul J. Adelman, Brennin S. Colegrove, and Stephanie L. Woodrow We examine Johnson BV and Cousins RI photometry of the cool giant stars HR 1105, HD 35155, HR 4088, TU CVn, IT Vir, and HR 7442, that the first author obtained with the Four College Automated Photoelectric Telescope. The new data for HR 1105 show that its variability is more complex than previously thought Except a 0.3 phase gap in the photometry of HD 35155, the amplitude of variability is fairly constant. For HR 4088, except for one season, we did not find any periods shorter than 100 days. For the barium star IT Vir assuming the orbital period is the photometric period, the light curves consist of two similar subparts each one-half of the orbital period long. But there are problems with concluding that this star is an ellipsoidal variable. For HR 7442, more data is needed to derive an accurate period. A few observations are also presented of HR 1556, HR 363, HD 58521, and HD 49368. -------------------- [JAD 13, 4] BOOK REVIEW: "...eine ausnehmende Zierde und Vortheil" Geschichte der Kieler Universitätssternwarte und ihrer Vorgängerinnen 1770-1950 Felix Lühning, Reviewed by H.W. Duerbeck This book comprises the habilitation thesis submitted by F. Lühning to the Faculty of Mathematics of Hamburg University in 2004. Due to financial support from various organizations, it was issued in a very attractive form as a special publication of the Society for the history of the city of Kiel. The nice layout, the graphical sketches of buildings, instruments, and astronomical connexions, often designed by the author, and the scientifically precise text, written with a sense of humor, make a pleasant reading, in spite of sometimes quite extensive descriptions of architectural details or 'operating instructions' for meridan circles etc. I have rarely read such an appealing text on astronomical history. The single chapters deal with the beginnings of astronomy in Kiel (1770-1820), Schrader's giant telescope from the late 18th century, Altona Observatory (1823-1850), the first years of the Astronomische Nachrichten, the last years of Altona Observatory (1850-1872), Bothkamp Observatory (1870-1914), the genesis of Kiel Observatory (1874-1880), the era of Krueger (1880-1896), the Kiel Chronometer Observatory (1893-1913), the era of Harzer (1897-1925), the era of Rosenberg (1927-1934), the decline of Kiel Observatory (1935-1950), and the Astronomische Nachrichten under Kobold (1907-1938). The book is concluded with a glossary of technical terms, biographical sketches of known and unknown dramatis personae, as well as a list of references. The author outlines lively sketches of people that were astronomically active in Altona, Kiel and its surroundings over a time interval of 200 years. To achieve this task, he has studied many files from the Secret State Archive Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin), the Schleswig-Holsteinisches State Archive (Schleswig) and the Hamburg State Archive, from which he quotes extensively. He also has evaluated private documents and has interviewed surviving witnesses of the 1930s and 1940s. He has located remote sources: for example, the son of the founder of the Astronomische Nachrichten, Richard Schumacher, served for some years as an assistant at the Chilean National Observatory, and had married Marie Bulling, a girl of German descent. From her "meagre diary entries" of that time (published in Valparaiso in 2004), the author suspects a "convenience marriage". Nevertheless, unreliable sources can provide a false picture: the interviewed custodian notes that the wife of the last official observatory director, Hans Oswald Rosenberg, was "Verena Borchardt, a Jewess from St. Petersburg" (p. 583). This is more than incorrect. The family lived for some years in Moscow (not St. Petersburg), because her father was a representative of various companies, especially his grand-father's Königsberger Thee-Compagnie. In 1880, his daughter Helene was born there - who later married the Kiel astronomer Wirtz. In 1882, the Borchardt family moved to Berlin, where the father became a banker, and where Verena was born. The family was "of reformed confession, of Jewish origin" (Borchardt, Heymel, Schröder: Marbacher Katalog Nr. 29, 1978): she was "a Jewess" in Nazi terminology only. On page 583 too, Wirtz' capricious political views are quoted: "The day when the French troops entered Strasbourg was the happiest one in my life", for which Theiss' paper of 1999 is quoted, and it is stated "source not given". Now, Theiss uses a study of Duerbeck and Seitter (1990), where the precise reference in the Kiel Acta is given. Another overlooked (although not very informative) source is the voluminous edition of the collected letters (München 1994-2002) of Rudolf Borchardt, the poetical brother of "Vera" Rosenberg and "Lene" Wirtz. Another series of peculiar statements refer to the Astronomische Nachrichten (p. 666): Neither did they publish, after 1945, "sometimes only Russian articles", nor after 1983 "only articles in English": some "German" astrometric articles appeared after that year, which will presumably stand the test of time better than the plethoria of "English" articles, dealing mainly with cosmology. Totally fabricated is the author's statement that the journal is now published by "the Astronomical Computing Centre [sic] in Heidelberg". In spite of these slightly critical notes on some irrelevant details, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book: it is an indispensable source of information for anyone who is interested in the history of astronomy in German-speaking lands in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. -------------------- [JAD 13, 5] BOOK REVIEW: Future Professional Communication in Astronomy Proceedings of the Colloquium held at the Palace of the Academies, Brussels, 10-13 June 2007 André Heck and Léo Houziaux (eds.) Reviewed by H.W. Duerbeck These are the timely and well-edited proceedings of a colloquium dealing with the present state and the future of "communication" in astronomy. While communication in the past was mainly restricted to printed journals, conferences and colloquia, things have changed dramatically in the last decades. Journals have gone online, and runs of paper copies are slowly declining. 25 astronomers and representatives of various publishing institutions met in Brussels in June 2007 to discuss the future and the different options of information communication and -exchange. 16 contributions are supplemented by summaries of discussions held at the meeting. After a general overview of one of the organizers, who has played a key role in various aspects of information exchange, several representatives discuss future plans of their publications: K.B. Marvel presents the AAS journals (ApJ parts I and II, ApJS, AJ, which are just being transferred from the University of Chicago Press to Institute of Physics Publishing). P. Murdin represents the RAS and its main journal, the MNRAS. "Open Access" is of course one of the key words of this conference. Producing a journal (either on paper or electronically) is expensive. For the AAS journals, these costs are shared between authors andsubscribers. Future plans are to abandon "paper copies" at all, although "printable pages" will continue to be provided. For MNRAS, it is the subscribers who pay. And if it would have "open access", authors would have to be charged for publication.Some research funding agencies demand that scientific results that they have sponsored should appear online, and freely available (at least after a certaintime). Various approaches were outlined by representatives of publishers (Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, Elsevier, EDP Sciences). S. Plaszczynski introduced a project for "open access" in the field of high energy physics. To replace "repositories" and collections of "preprints" that may have never made it to the pages of journals for various reasons, a SCOAP model was initiated. This "Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics" will be a global network of funding agencies, laboratories and libraries that will provide the necessary funding for publishing material in the main journals for high energy physics (involving four publishers). M. Kurtz outlined the "Open access policy" of Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), while T. Mahoney voiced some caution, since open access may lead to a deterioration or even collapse of the publication process. W. B. Burton and H. A. Abt discussed long-term trends in research literature, while C. Madsen and L. L. Christensen discussed aspects of communication of specialists with politicians and the public. We could only give a brief summary of this book. Many thought-provoking ideas simply defied being abstracted. Anyone who is interested in the publication process in astronomy and its aspects in the future will find a lot of interesting reading in these proceedings. --------------------