The past two years of the observatory have been marked by the expansion in the field of space astronomy. The appointment of Dr. Esko Valtaoja as professor of space astronomy has opened up the teaching of this field in Finland. Dr. Chris Flynn, a new permanent Research Fellow, has brought about a major push in the use of satellite data. The appointment of Dr. Pasi Hakala to the permanent staff from February 1999 is expected to strengthen the same trend.
Space astronomy is an important complement to the ongoing activities in optical and radio astronomy.
On the optical side the refurbishing of the 70-cm Schmidt telescope with a CCD camera has brought about new observing possibilities. The decision to operate several smaller telescopes at remote sites will also help with the optical monitoring of quasars. The most important of the latter is the 60-cm telescope of the Royal Academy of Sciences at La Palma which will be transferred to the use of Tuorla observatory for the next ten years. In radio astronomy, the development of the VLBI facility has continued at Mets hovi Radio Research Station of Technical University of Helsinki. At the same time, the radio monitoring work has continued together with the Technical University.