From: klaes@verga.enet.dec.com (Larry Klaes)
Subject: Electronic Journal of the ASA (EJASA) - January 1993
Keywords: SETI, China, EJASA
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 21:54:13 GMT

                          THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF
                  THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC

                      Volume 4, Number 6 - January 1993

                         ###########################

                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

                         ###########################

          * ASA Membership and Article Submission Information

          * Conference Preview: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 
            (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum - Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley

          * A Visit to China

                         ###########################

                         ASA MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

        The Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
    (EJASA) is published monthly by the Astronomical Society of the
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        Council - Bill Bagnuolo, Bill Black, Mike Burkhead, Frank Guyton, 
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                             ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS

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                                DISCLAIMER

        Submissions are welcome for consideration.  Articles submitted,
    unless otherwise stated, become the property of the Astronomical
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    Opinions expressed in the EJASA are those of the authors' and not
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    by the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic, Incorporated.


                              CONFERENCE PREVIEW

              THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI)
                            IN THE OPTICAL SPECTRUM

                           by Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley
                   Fiberdyne Optoelectronics, Columbus, Ohio

        From the author of the January 1992 six-part EJASA (THE ELECTRONIC
    JOURNAL OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC) article (Vol. 3,
    No. 6A-6F) on Optical SETI (OSETI).

        The author would like to acknowledge that this Electronic Journal
    has been instrumental in the organization of this conference, for
    without last January's publication, this author would not have been
    invited by SPIE to put this conference together.

        You are encouraged to remail this material to anyone you know with
    interests in SETI or to print it out and pin it up on your astronomical
    society, company, faculty, or school notice board.  Some of the
    following material was featured in the October 1992 issue of EJASA
    (Vol. 4, No. 3) and the December 1992 issue of SPIE's OE REPORTS:


        Almost three years ago I began "lobbying" the scientific community
    to reconsider the optical approach to the electromagnetic search for
    extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), first described by Nobel laureate
    Charles Townes (1964 - masers/lasers) in 1961.  Unfortunately, many of
    the strongest proponents for electromagnetic SETI have become dogmatic
    and will not countenance open discussion of alternatives to microwave
    SETI, believing that the issue of the relative efficiencies of microwave
    and optical SETI was settled years ago in favor of microwaves.  Optical
    SETI has received very poor press ever since the skewed ETI laser
    transmitter assumptions in the Project Cyclops report, two decades ago.
    This NASA design study report described a microwave array consisting of
    up to nine hundred 100-meter diameter dishes which if fully built would
    have occupied an area 6.4 kilometers in diameter and cost, in 1970s 
    currency, some ten billion dollars.  This grand project was never fun-
    ded but the report itself has had a profound effect on SETI thinking.

        In the comparison table that appeared on page 50 of that report, the
    optical system modeled described an interstellar laser communication
    system that employed a 1.06 micron Nd:YAG laser, and a 22.5 cm diameter
    transmitting telescope.  There were various reasons for limiting the
    aperture of the ETI transmitter.  One reason arose out of unnecessarily
    constraining both parts of the system to operate on a planetary surface,
    within an atmosphere, and thus be limited by the atmospheric coherence
    cell size.  Another reason was to avoid the production of beams that
    were smaller than the zones of life around nearby targeted stars.
    However, the net effect was to cripple the potential very high Effective
    Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) of the optical transmitters.  

        It would be far better to build larger transmitting telescopes and 
    defocus them when targeting nearby stars, if, in the unlikely event, 
    the ETI civilization did not possess the technical prowess to aim narrow
    beams into nearby stars.  In this way, the long-range EIRP would not be
    unnecessarily degraded.  The modeled "toy" ETI uplink telescopes put
    the onus on the young and technically immature receiving civilization
    (humanity) to build very large and expensive telescopes to receive weak
    signals from mature ETI civilizations, instead of the converse.  It 
    was this part of an otherwise excellent report that so distorted its
    conclusions concerning the efficacy and relative cost (to us) of the
    optical approach to SETI.

        If we allow for transmitting and receiving apertures to be 10 meters
    in diameter or larger, it can be shown for transmitter powers comparable
    to those for microwave systems that relatively small diffraction-
    limited laser systems are capable of supporting far higher signal-to-
    noise ratios and data rates than the much larger microwave systems.  The
    extremely high gains of optical antennas more than make up for the
    additional quantum noise and stellar background radiation noise.  The
    lack of (currently) easily identifiable "magic optical frequencies",
    equivalent to the microwave waterhole between 1.420 and 1.662 GHz, save
    for the major CO2 transition at 10.6 microns, is not a reason to
    conclude that ETIs would not use lasers to signal Earth.  Indeed, the
    effectiveness of pulsed laser signals is so high that there is less
    need to be concerned about the exact laser frequency.

        Indeed, from the viewpoint of communications with extraterrestrial
    intelligences (CETI), which is not presently being proposed, terrene SDI
    lasers of the late Twentieth Century are certainly capable of "reaching
    out and touching ETIs" across one thousand or more light years.  The
    problem today is that we do not know where to point our lasers and we
    lack the means to provide precise forward predictive targeting of
    extrasolar planets.  Even more basic to this problem is that direct
    visual observations of other planets around nearby star systems await
    the technological developments of the next century.  In the meantime, 
    we must take the passive and perhaps safer approach of listening for 
    ETI signals.

        Let it be noted here that the word "optical" is used in a manner
    familiar to optoelectronics (photonics) engineers and scientists, as 
    an umbrella term.  It is a superset of both "visible" and "infrared."  
    The word "optical" is not to be taken as being synonymous with the word
    "visible", since the former (for communication engineers) covers all
    electromagnetic frequencies from the far-infrared to the ultra-violet.

        Last year, OE REPORTS had an interview with Dr. Monte Ross of Laser
    Data Technology Inc., in which he described his thoughts about the
    search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the optical spectrum.  At
    that time, I was unaware of Dr. Ross's work.  Last January, I had just
    published electronically on Internet a very long paper on the subject 
    in this Electronic Journal.  This was the six-part article in THE
    ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC (EJASA,
    Vol. 3, No. 6A-6F).

        As a result of my electronic paper, during the summer I was asked 
    by Dr. David L. Begley of Ball Aerospace Systems Group to organize a
    special session on Optical SETI (OSETI) for SPIE as part of the OE/LASE
    '93 symposium.  David Begley is the previous chairman of the Free-Space
    Laser Communications conferences.  The Optical SETI event was originally
    planned to be a single session in SPIE's Free-Space Laser Communication
    Technologies V conference, chaired by Dr. Stephen Mecherle of TRW, Inc.

        Even though summer was a difficult time to start organizing a
    conference, I was able to get so many papers at short notice that the
    single session was extended into a dedicated conference with three
    sessions and a separate published proceedings.  The latter will be
    available as SPIE Volume 1867 after the conference and will constitute
    the first publication on this subject.  The conference will be held 
    on January 21-22, 1993 at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel and
    immediately follows the Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies V
    conference.  The Optical SETI conference cochair will be Monte Ross.
    This event is effectively, though unofficially, the First International
    Conference on Optical SETI.

        This SETI event will be of particular interest to laser communi-
    cations scientists and engineers.  It presents the opportunity to help 
    resolve the dichotomy within NASA that while lasers are fine for GEO 
    to GEO, GEO to LEO, deep space, and interstellar communications, ETIs
    would not use such technology to signal emerging technical civilizations
    (us).  The first session will bring the laser communications community
    up to speed on microwave (conventional) SETI and general SETI related
    matters.  The second and third sessions are specifically devoted to
    optical SETI topics.  Many shades of opinion are included.

        We are fortunate in being able to have Arthur C. Clarke kick off
    this conference from his home in Sri Lanka.  This will be a videotaped
    address.  These days, Clarke's health precludes extensive traveling. We
    are also investigating the possibility that NASA Select TV could cover
    the entire conference on a live or tape-delayed basis.  If you cannot
    attend this conference but would like to see it transmitted by NASA
    Select, write to SPIE and NASA Headquarters requesting this coverage. 
    The more people lobby for this, the more likely is the cooperation of
    the concerned parties.  For those with a TVRO (TeleVision Receive Only)
    satellite dish, NASA Select TV is available on Satcom F2R (72 W),
    Transponder 13.

        Among the 16 papers scheduled:  Dr. David Brocker, who heads NASA's
    High Resolution Microwave Survey, will give the keynote paper on NASA's
    search for evidence of extraterrestrial technologies (Dr. Peter Backus
    will now be presenting this paper).  Drs. David Latham and David
    Soderblom will discuss the strategies for the SETI star targeting 
    survey and Drs. Michael Klein and Samuel Gulkis from JPL will describe 
    the high-resolution all-sky survey.  The "Grand Old Man" of SETI,
    Dr. Bernard M. Oliver, who is extremely critical of the optical
    approach, will demonstrate for the first time to the laser communi-
    cations community why ETIs would not use lasers for SETI interstellar
    communications.  Professor Frank Tipler, a strong critic of SETI, will
    explain why both microwave and optical SETI is a waste of time, since 
    he thinks that we are the first civilization in the Milky Way galaxy.

        Philosopher Clive Goodall will rebut Frank Tipler's arguments, and
    Noted philosopher Professor Neil Tennant will present his view of why
    there could be major problems in actually decoding the message on an ETI
    signal.  This may be the first time that philosophers have presented
    papers at a "technical" meeting on SETI, particularly one organized by
    SPIE.  Dr. Guillermo Lemarchand will describe both radio and optical
    SETI activities in Argentina and give an account of the MANIA optical
    SETI project devised by the late Professor Shvartsman of the former
    Soviet Union.  Drs. John Rather and Monte Ross (conference co-chairman)
    will give accounts of their approaches to interstellar laser communi-
    cations, while this author will present a review paper and describe the
    amateur approach to optical SETI.  There will be a discussion at the end
    of the conference, moderated by Charles Townes, who earlier will talk
    about his CO2 optical SETI laser work, and the CO2 OSETI observations
    being conducted by Dr. Albert Betz on Mount Wilson.

        Note that as with previous SETI publications, the latest book by
    SETI pioneer Professor Frank Drake and Dava Sobel IS ANYONE OUT THERE?
    hardly mentions the optical approach.  This conference intends to
    redress that omission.  This "controversial" OSETI conference should be
    a "fun" event but you do not need to be a laser communications engineer
    or SETI scientist to attend - you only need a curiosity about "our" 
    place in the grand scheme of things.

        With large telescopes, Optical SETI is the one branch of visible
    astronomy, save for solar astronomy, that can be done during the day
    under a clear blue sky!

        Last October, we saw the celebration of the Quincentennial of
    Christopher Columbus's voyage to the Americas and the official start 
    of NASA's Microwave Observing Project (MOP), recently renamed the High 
    Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS).  Numerous articles on SETI have 
    appeared in recent magazine publications, including the September 1992 
    issue of LIFE, the October issue of ASTRONOMY, and the November/December 
    issue of SMITHSONIAN AIR & SPACE.  See also recent issues of TIME and 
    NEWSWEEK.  The November issue of SKY & TELESCOPE has a long article 
    about microwave SETI and mentions the optical approach.  This is 
    probably the first published popular account of modern OSETI in the 
    printed media.  See the bibliography at the end of this article.

        I have also begun the construction of what I believe to be the
    world's first amateur optical SETI (AMOSETI) Observatory.  This will be
    based around the Meade 10-inch LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, and is
    one of the most advanced on the market today for use under computer and
    CCD control.  In the last paper of the conference, I will be reporting
    on the amateur approach to Optical SETI and any work done to date on my
    observatory system.  In many respects, the approach adopted by the
    author for AMOSETI is similar to that employed by Shvartsman and Beskin
    in the MANIA project, i.e., looking for very short pulses rather than CW
    beacon signals.   It is possible that AMOSETI will lead to a renaissance
    in amateur astronomy, where light pollution - the bane of astronomers -
    has no effect on ETI detection sensitivity!

        At this time during the sharp decline in the industrial-military
    complex, can there be a more ennobling way for defense conversion - to
    turn laser swords into SETI or CETI plowshares and help discover that we
    are not alone within the Milky Way galaxy?  Monte and I look forward to
    seeing you at this conference at the rebirth of a new branch of science.

        About the Author -

        Stuart A. Kingsley is a fiber optic consultant and Director of the
    world's first Amateur Optical SETI Observatory.  He received a B.Sc.
    Honors and Ph.D. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from The 
    City University, London (1972) and University College London (1984),
    respectively (England).  He worked at Battelle Columbus Division as
    Principal Research Scientist and then as Senior Research Scientist from
    1981 to 1987.  He has been involved in producing a variety of fiber-
    optic sensors, including fiber-optic rotation sensors.  He invented 
    the fiber-optic line-stretcher and fiber-optic line-squeezer phase
    modulators that are now important components in fiber-optic sensor
    systems.  He shared a 1984 Rank Prize in Optoelectronics for pioneering
    work on fiber-optic sensing.  

        Stuart's other professional interests include the possible health 
    effects of electromagnetic pollution and adverse effects from fluor-
    escent lighting/VDT flicker.  He is the author of 38 papers in fiber-
    optics, mainly related to coherent systems and distributed fiber-optic 
    sensing, and several patents mainly in the area of coherent fiber-optic 
    systems.  He is a member of the IEE, a British Chartered Engineer, a 
    senior member of IEEE and a member of Eta Kappa Nu Association.  He 
    is also a member of The Planetary Society, the Columbus Astronomical 
    Society, and a former member of the Astronomical Society of Haringey 
    (ASH) in London.


                               CONFERENCE PROGRAM

                                   OE/LASE '93

               THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI)
                             IN THE OPTICAL SPECTRUM

                            SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1867

    Location: Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California,
    U.S.A.

    Conference Chairman: Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley, Fiberdyne Optoelectronics.
    Co-chair: Dr. Monte Ross, Laser Data Technology, Inc.

    Room: Pacific A


             SESSION 1 - INTRODUCTION AND CONVENTIONAL MICROWAVE SETI

    Session Chairman - Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley, Fiberdyne Optoelectronics.

    Thursday, January 21, 1993

    Afternoon
    1:20 to 5:00 pm

        1:20 pm
        Opening Remarks
        Stuart A. Kingsley, Fiberdyne Optoelectronics


        1.30 pm
        "Let there be light"
        (Videotaped Keynote Address)
        Arthur C. Clarke
        Chancellor - International Space University, Sri Lanka.
        (1867-01)


        2:00 pm
        "The NASA search for evidence of extraterrestrial technologies"
        (Keynote Paper)
        David Brocker
        Project Manager, HRMS
        SETI Office
        NASA Ames Research Center
        (1867-02)


        2:30 pm
        "Strategies for SETI target selection"
        Dr. David W. Latham and Dr. David R. Soderblom
        Dr. David W. Latham
        Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

        Dr. David R. Soderblom
        Associate Astronomer
        Space Telescope Science Institute
        (1867-03)


        2:50 pm
        "High-resolution microwave all-sky survey"
        Dr. Michael J. Klein and Dr. Samuel Gulkis
        Dr. Michael J. Klein
        HRMS Program Manager
        Jet Propulsion Laboratory

        Dr. Samuel Gulkis
        Jet Propulsion Laboratory
        (1867-04)


        3:10 to 3:30 pm
        Coffee Break


        3:30 pm
        "SETI - a waste of time!"
        (Invited Paper)
        Professor Frank Tipler
        Physics Department
        Tulane University
        (1867-05)


        4:00 pm
        "Using modern analytical philosophy (MAP) to sweep the MOP clean:
        Non-optical reflections upon untapped data, bad arguments and the
        nonexistence of Von Neumann interstellar probes."
        Clive Goodall
        Department of Philosophy
        The Ohio State University
        (1867-06)


        4:30 pm
        "The decoding problem: do we need to search for extra terrestrial
        intelligence to Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence?"
        Professor Neil W. Tennant
        Department of Philosophy
        The Ohio State University
        (1867-07)


        5:00 pm
        Combined reception for the authors from this conference and the
        Free-Space Laser Communications V conference.


                            SESSION 2 - OPTICAL SETI I

    Session Chairman - Dr. Monte Ross, Laser Data Technology, Inc.

    Friday, January 22, 1993

    Morning
    8:30 to 11:45 am

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    |                             Special Event                            |
    |                                                                      |
    |   8:30 am                                                            |
    |   Technical attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a  |
    |   15-minute question/answer period with Arthur C. Clarke             |
    |   (in Sri Lanka) via phone hook-up.                                  |
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

        8:45 am
        "Fundamental factors affecting the optimum frequency range for SETI"
        (Invited Paper)
        Dr. Bernard M. Oliver
        Deputy Chief, NASA SETI Office
        NASA Ames Research Center
        (1867-08)


        9:15 am
        "The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the optical
        spectrum and professional optical SETI: a review"
        Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley
        President
        Fiberdyne Optoelectronics
        (1867-09)


        9:45 pm
        "An economic rationale for extraterrestrials using lasers for SETI"
        Dr. Monte Ross
        President
        Laser Data Technology, Inc.
        (1867-10)


        10:05 to 10:35 am
        Coffee Break


        10:35 am
        "Infrared SETI"
        Professor Charles H. Townes
        Department of Physics
        Space Sciences Laboratory
        University of California, Berkeley
        (1867-11)


        11:05 am
        "Use of lasers for interstellar beacons, communications and travel"
        Dr. John Rather
        NASA Headquarters
        (1867-12)


        11:25 am
        "Optical SETI from the southern hemisphere"
        Dr. Guillermo A. Lemarchand, Dr. Gregory M. Beskin,
        Dr. Fernando R. Colomb, and Dr. Mariano Mendez
        Dr. Guillermo A. Lemarchand
        Visiting Fellow
        Center for Radiophysics and
        Space Research
        Cornell University

        Dr. Gregory M. Beskin
        Special Astrophysical Observatory
        Soviet Academy of Science

        Dr. Fernando Raul Colomb
        Director
        Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia

        Dr. Mariano Mendez
        Researcher
        Observatorio Astronomico de La Plata
        (1867-13)


        11:45 am to 1:00 pm
        Lunch


                            SESSION 3 - OPTICAL SETI II

    Session Chairman - Dr. James R. Lesh, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    Friday, January 22, 1993

    Afternoon
    1:00 to 2:00 pm

        1:00 pm
        "Application of one measure of search merit to optical SETI"
        Dr. D. Kent Cullers
        Signal Detection Sub-System Manager
        SETI Project
        NASA Ames Research Center
        (1867-14)


        1:20 pm
        "Large M-ary pulse position modulation and photon buckets for
        effective interstellar communications"
        Dr. Monte Ross
        President
        Laser Data Technology, Inc.
        (1867-15)


        1:40 pm
        "Amateur optical SETI"*
        Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley
        President
        Fiberdyne Optoelectronics
        (1867-16)


        "Recent progress in deep-space optical communication
        (Proceedings Only)
        Dr. James R. Lesh
        Jet Propulsion Laboratory
        (1867-17)


        Workshop/Panel Discussion
        2.30 - 4.30 pm
        Moderator - Professor Charles H. Townes, 1964 Nobel Prize Laureate,
        University of California, Berkeley.


        Closing Remarks
        4.30 pm
        Stuart A. Kingsley, Fiberdyne Optoelectronics
        Monte Ross, Laser Data Technology, Inc.


  * The last conference paper will give preliminary details of the design of
    the world's first Amateur Optical SETI Observatory, presently under
    construction in the author's backyard.

                                ---------------

        To receive a copy of the Advance Technical Program from SPIE which
    also provides information about registration, accommodation and costs to
    attend this conference (see details below), contact Rosa Cays
    (rosa@mom.spie.org) or Terry Montonye (terry@mom.spie.org) at:

        SPIE
        P.O. Box 10
        Bellingham
        WA 98227-0010
        Tel: (206) 676-3290
        Fax: (206) 647-1445


        For more information, the conference organizer Stuart Kingsley can
        be contacted at:

        Fiberdyne Optoelectronics
        545 Northview Drive
        Columbus
        Ohio 43209
        Tel: (614) 258-7402
        Fax: (614) 258-7459
        OSETI Bulletin Board System (BBS): (614) 258-1710
        Internet: skingsle@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
        CompuServe: 72376,3545


    OE/LASE '93 includes symposia over the period 16-23 January 1993 on the
    following subjects:

    Free-Space Laser Communications V (January 20-21, 1993).
    The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical
    Spectrum (January 21-22, 1993).
    Laser Engineering (January 17-22, 1993).
    Optoelectronic Processing and Interconnects (January 17-23, 1993).
    Biomedical Optics '93 (January 16-22, 1993).

        There are also educational short courses (January 17-22, 1993) and
    two technical exhibitions, the Medical Exhibition (January 16-17, 1993),
    and the Laser and Sensor Exhibition (January 19-21, 1993).


    Registration
                              Member         Working         Non-
                                              Group         Member
    Full Conference*          $355            $380           $415
    Author (full conf.)       $290            $310           $340
    One day                   $165            $175           $190
    Author (one day)          $140            $150           $165
    Students (no lunch)       $ 60            $N/A           $ 70

    *Rate for a three-day conference.

    **There is no separate registration rate for the SETI conference.

        Attendees for the SETI conference will have to pay for two days.  If
    you can spare the time, attendees are recommended to take in the
    Wednesday morning and afternoon, and Thursday morning sessions of the
    Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies V conference, as this
    technology is very relevant to Optical SETI.  The cost for the full
    conference period (three days) is little more than for the two day OSETI
    conference alone.


    SPIE Proceedings Volume 1867              $ 35

        These proceedings will also include a copy of Dr. Lesh's large
    review paper on NASA's optical communications activities, which is to 
    be presented at the Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies V
    conference.


    Accommodation

    Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel (OE/LASE '93 Conference Center)
    5711 West Century Boulevard
    Los Angeles, California 90045, USA
    Tel: (310) 410-4000
    Fax: (310) 410-6250

    Rates:
    Single or double (government)              $81
    Single or double                           $89 - $109


    Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel
    5855 West Century Boulevard
    Los Angeles, California 90045, USA
    Tel: (310) 641-5700
    Fax: (310) 337-5358

    Rates:
    Single or double (government)              $80
    Single or double                           $85 - $105


      Bibliography -

        EJASA, Volume 3, Number 6, Parts 6A-6F, January 1992.

        EJASA, Volume 4, Number 3, October 1992.

        SKY & TELESCOPE, November 1992, pp. 513.

        LASER FOCUS WORLD, November 1992, p. 5.

        PHOTONICS SPECTRA, December 1992, p. 10.

        OE REPORTS, December 1992, pp. 1 and 3.

        COLUMBUS MONTHLY, January 1993, pp. 77-78, 80.



                              A VISIT TO CHINA

        From November 2 to 7, 1992, ASA member Paul J. Wiita of GSU's
    Department of Physics and Astronomy attended the "Workshop on
    Accretion and Jets" at the Huazhong (Central China) Normal University
    in Wuhan, on the mighty Yangtze (Yellow) River. 

        Over thirty-five Chinese astronomers from about one dozen
    universities and observatories attended, along with one Japanese 
    and three American participants.  Twelve invited and twenty-six
    contributed oral papers were presented.  Wiita gave two invited
    lectures on "Observations and Theoretical Models for Microvariablity
    in Active Galactic Nuclei", which were very well received. 

        When Professor Hanawa from Nagoya University had to leave early,
    Paul was asked to give an additional talk on "The Propagation of Radio
    Jets through Galactic Halos and the Intracluster Medium", which had to
    be prepared from memory.  This meeting was originally scheduled for
    June 6 to 11 of 1989, but the confrontation in Tianamen Square in 
    the capital city of Beijing caused it to be postponed. 

        At the time, most Chinese seemed to feel free to discuss politics
    in private, but were still wary of public conversations.  Nevertheless, 
    Paul's introductory remarks indicating that he hoped all astronomers - 
    including the exiled leading astrophysicist Fang Lizhi - would be able 
    to participate in the next meeting in Wuhan drew strong applause. 

        The hospitality was extraordinary, with Professor Yang Lantian and
    the other hosts providing all facilities, including sumptuous banquets
    every lunch and dinner (not to mention massive breakfasts).  A tour of
    local attractions, including the huge East Lake with its many parks,
    towers, and gardens and the 57-meter (180-foot) tall Yellow Crane
    Pagoda was arranged for the participants. 

        After the meeting, Wiita and a few other lecturers went on a trip
    to the ancient capital Xi'an (where the famous terra-cotta army of the
    First Emperor is displayed), as well as to Beijing, and a visit to the 
    incomparable Great Wall.  

        All of the foreign participants were impressed with the economic
    strides China has made over the past fifteen years. The standard of
    living of the average person is clearly quite adequate.  The shops are
    full of a very wide range of goods, including VCRs, eight-millimeter
    camcorders, and, most importantly, telescopes. 


      THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC

                         January 1993 - Vol. 4, No. 6

                           Copyright (c) 1993 - ASA

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