This book traces the development of the Jewish calendar from its origin until it reached, in the tenth century CE, its present form. Drawing on a wide range of sources - literary, documentary and epigraphic; Jewish, Graeco-Roman and Christian - this is the first comprehensive book to have been written on this subject. The unification of the calendar is seen as an element in the unification of Jewish identity.

IAU Colloquium 165, Dynamics and Astrometry of Natural and Artificial Celestial Bodies, was held in Poznan, Poland, in July 1996, bringing together over 200 scientists from 27 countries who discussed their work in 179 oral and poster presentations. The present volume contains 83 of the papers presented at the meeting. The meeting brought together specialists from diverse fields who focused on the very close collaboration between dynamics and astrometry, where one discipline contributes to the progress of the other. The oral sessions were organized into general categories pertaining to: solar system dynamics; new observational techniques, catalogues, and astrometry; dynamics and observational problems of artificial satellites and space debris; rotation of solar system objects; reference systems and astronomical standards; new mathematical techniques; and three all-day poster sessions. This volume is divided into seven parts, comprising 83 contributions, a list of participants and an index.

The subject of this workshop (held May-June 1989) plays the central role in high energy heavy ion collisions; contains the possibilities of various phase transitions (gas vapor, meson condensation, quark gluon plasma); and plays an important role in the static and dynamical behavior of stars, especi"

This book is the sixth volume under the title Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA). The OSA series is intended to cover a large range of fields and themes. In practice, one could say that all aspects of astronomy-related life and environment are considered in the spirit of sharing specific expertise and lessons learned.

The chapters of this book are dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: characteristics of organizations, strategies for development, legal issues, operational techniques, observing practicalities, educational policies, journal and magazine profiles, public outreach, publication studies, relationships with the media, research communication, evaluation and selection procedures, research indicators, national specificities, contemporary history, and so on.

The experts contributing to this volume have done their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyperspecialized in astronomy while providing specific detailed information and sometimes enlightening lessons learned' sections. The book concludes with an updated bibliography of publications related to socio-astronomy and to the interactions of the astronomy community with the society at large.

This volume will be most usefully read by researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, sociologists of science, research planners and strategists, project managers, public-relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science.

The first ideas for the symposium were generated in Brussels in the summer of 1986, dur ing exquisite lunches in between HST proposal consortium meetings. At the time it was expected that soon after the previous IAU symposium (No. 116) devoted to luminous hot massive stars, a bonanza of new exciting observational material would become available, together with significant advances on the theoretical front. Also it was felt that Wolf Rayet stars should feature predominantly, because that had not been the case since IAU Symposium No. 99 in 1981. Tradition requires that IAU symposia on hot massive stars take place in high lumi nosity beach resorts, and after Buenos Aires, Qualicum Beach, Cozumel and Porto Heli, Bali sounded like a reasonable place. Therefore we were only too pleased with the invitation of the Indonesian astronomical community to host the symposium in Sanur (Denpasar). The aim of the symposium was to bring together both observers and theoreticians active in the field of Wolf-Rayet stars and related objects, to present and discuss their recent results, in order to expose to what extent consensus exists as to the physical and chemical properties of Wolf-Rayet stars, their evolutionary status and their interrelations with other massive stars in galaxies."

The Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy organizes each year in the late winter or early spring an advanced course. The format of the school is always iden tical: three leading lecturers are invited to cover the subject in nine or ten lectures each and to deliver a written version of their lecture notes. Lectures are held in the morning and late afternoon, thus leaving ample time for discussion and skiing. These arrangements prove very convivial and lead to an excellent atmosphere in which to learn exciting new subjects and establish contacts with colleagues. A wide variety of people attend the school, including many young students, mostly from Europe, and some experienced researchers. The 20th Advanced Course of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy took place in Les Diablerets from 1 to 6 April 1990. It was devoted to observational and theoretical aspects of active galactic nuclei. The previous advanced courses of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy have regularly taken place in Saas-Fee, a small resort in the Swiss Alps, hence the name "Saas-Fee" used to de scribe the courses and lecture notes. In the last three years, however, the course was organized in Leysin and in Les Diablerets, both also situated in the Swiss Alps."

J 2 J. MICHAEL SHl: LL, HARLEY A. THRO: \SOX, JR., A: '>D S. ALAN STER: \3 I University of Colorado, Dept. of Astrophysical. Planetary, &. Atmospheric Sciences 2 University of Wyoming and KASA Headquarters, Code SR 3 Southwest Research Institute, Boulder Office On May 15-17. 1995, three Rocky Motultain research institutions hosted a confererJce to dis cuss the scientific basis, teclmological options, and programmatic implications of a large-scale effort to find and study Earth-like planets outside the Solar System. Our workshop attracted scientists, erJgineers, space agency administrators, and the public media to discuss and debate the most promising teclmological options and opportunities. Major programs and proposals to search for and study exo-planets were preserJted and discussed. In addition, our meeting - incided .with NASA's "roadmap" study for the Exploration of Neighboring Planetary Systems ( "'\PS). Our meeting was the first international confererJce on this subject, affording an op portunity for several members of this study to participate in the debates over new technologies. Our meeting proyed to be timely. Shortly thereafter, in late 199.5 and early 1996, two groups of astronomers annotulced the first discoveries of planetary companions to nearby stars. using high-precision radial velocity measuremerJts to detect the gravitational reflex motion of the star. The first three detections include a Jupiter-mass companion to the solar-like star. 51 Pegasi, and two remarkable objects of mass at least 2. 3 and 6."

Rotation is ubiquitous at each step of stellar evolution, from star formation to the final stages, and it affects the course of evolution, the timescales and nucleosynthesis. Stellar rotation is also an essential prerequisite for the occurrence of Gamma-Ray Bursts.

In this book the author thoroughly examines the basic mechanical and thermal effects of rotation, their influence on mass loss by stellar winds, the effects of differential rotation and its associated instabilities, the relation with magnetic fields and the evolution of the internal and surface rotation. Further, he discusses the numerous observational signatures of rotational effects obtained from spectroscopy and interferometric observations, as well as from chemical abundance determinations, helioseismology and asteroseismology, etc.

On an introductory level, this book presents in a didactical way the basic concepts of stellar structure and evolution in "track 1" chapters. The other more specialized chapters form an advanced course on the graduate level and will further serve as a valuable reference work for professional astrophysicists.

This book is intended as a historical and critical study on the origin of the equations of motion as established in Newton's Principia. The central question that it aims to answer is whether it is indeed correct to ascribe to Galileo the inertia principle and the law of falling bodies. In order to accomplish this task, the study begins by considering theories on the motion of bodies from classical antiquity, and especially those of Aristotle. The theories developed during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are then reviewed, with careful analysis of the contributions of, for example, the Merton and Parisian Schools and Galileo's immediate predecessors, Tartaglia and Benedetti. Finally, Galileo's work is examined in detail, starting from the early writings. Excerpts from individual works are presented, to allow the texts to speak for themselves, and then commented upon. The book provides historical evidence both for Galileo's dependence on his forerunners and for the major breakthroughs that he achieved. It will satisfy the curiosity of all who wish to know when and why certain laws have been credited to Galileo.

At the opening of the "Third Meeting on Celestial Mechanics - CELMEC III", strong sensations hit our minds. The conference (18-22 June 2001) was being held in Villa Mondragone, a beautiful complex of buildings and gardens located within the township of Monte Porzio Catone, on the hills surrounding Rome. A former papal residence, the building has been recently restored by the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" to host academic activities and events. The conference room is called "Salone degli Svizzeri": here, Gregory XIII, on February 24, 1582, gave its sanction to the reform of the Julian calendar and declared officially in use the calendar still adopted nowadays. The magnificent high walls and tall ceiling strongly resounded, giving to our voice a peculiar Vatican sound, which took us by surprise. May be - we thought - a distant echo of the very words of Gregory XIII proclaiming the modem calendar was still haunting the room. Around us, in the audience, many countries were represented, thus indicating that the idea of putting together the three "souls" of modem Celestial Mechanics - perturbation theories, solar and stellar system studies, spaceflight dynamic- had been successful. CELMEC III is in fact the latest of a series of meetings (the first two editions took place in 1993 and 1997 in L' Aquila, Italy) whose aim is to establish a common ground among people working in Celestial Mechanics, yet belonging to different institutions such as universities, astronomical observatories, research institutes, space agencies and industries.

Two specialized new instruments for ESO's VLT, VISIR and CRIRES, spawned the idea for this workshop. CRIRES is a dedicated very high resolution infrared spectrograph; VISIR features a high resolution spectroscopic mode. Together, the instruments combine the sensitivity of an 8m-telescope with the now well-established reliability of VLT-facility instruments. High resolution here means that lines in cool stellar atmospheres and HII-regions can be resolved. The astrophysical topics discussed in this rather specialized workshop range from the inner solar system to active galactic nuclei. There are many possibilities for new discoveries with these instruments, but the unique capability, which becomes available through high-resolution infrared spectroscopy, is the observation of molecular rotational-vibrational transitions in many astrophysical environments. Particularly interesting and surprising in this context, many papers on modeling and laboratory spectroscopy at the workshop appear to indicate that astronomical observations are lagging a bit behind in this field. The papers are an interesting mix of reports from existing high resolution facilities, reports on modeling efforts of synthetic spectra and reports on laboratory spectra. In this sense, a fruitful exchange between molecular physics and astronomy was again accomplished and is documented in this volume.

The idea for another conference on the theme of Infrared Astronomy with Arrays actually goes back to March 1987. At a party held in my home at the end of the Hilo conference, excitement was running high and everyone present was in favor of another meeting. I recall suggesting to Al Fowler that the next meeting could be in Tucson. Despite Al's reply to the effect that Hawaii was a much nicer location, a meeting was held in Tucson three years later. That meeting focussed more on the astrophysics which had been accomplished with the detectors, rather than on techniques and methods. However, it was already apparent in February of 1990 that a new generation of larger m arrays would soon supersede the 64x64 class of devices and so, having just moved from the UK Infrared Telescope unit in Hawaii to join with Eric Becklin in his move to UCLA, it seemed to me that another Hilo-style conference was appropriate, and Eric agreed.

This symposium was devoted to a new celestial mechanics whose aim has become the study of such objects' as the planetary system, planetary rings, the asteroidal belt, meteor swarms, satellite systems, comet families, the zodiacal cloud, the preplanetary nebula, etc. When the three-body problem is considered instead of individual orbits we are, now, looking for the topology of extended regions of its phase space. This Symposium was one step in the effort to close the ties between two scientific families: the observationally-oriented scientists and the theoretically-oriented scientists.

H.T. MacGilLIVRAY Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Scotland U.K. lAU Symposium No. 161 on 'Astronomy from Wide-Field Imaging', held in Potsdam, Germany, during 23-27th August 1993, was the first conference organised by the recently-formed Working Group of lAU Commission 9 on 'Wide-Field Imaging'. This Working Group was instigated during the XXIst meeting of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Buenos Aires in 1991, and represented a merging of the former formal lAU Working Group on 'Astronomical Photography' and the informal 'Digitised Optical Sky Surveys' Working Group. Dr. Richard West was 'invited' to be Chairperson, and hence was given the daunting task of organising the Group from scratch. The very fact that the first conference after only two years was a major lAU Symposium says much about the determination and enthusiasm of Richard West to fulfilling the aims of the new Working Group. The siting of the conference in Potsdam in formerly East Germany provided an excellent opportunity to advantage from the political changes in Eastern Europe. Good access to the meeting was possible by scientists from Eastern European countries, allowing exchange of information on the very important Wide-Field facilities in both East and West, information on the rich archives of photographic plates that exist in both East and West, and allowing discussions between scientists facing very similar problems in both East and West.

The 34th Saas-Fee advanced course of the Swiss Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics (SSAA) took place from March 15 to 20, 2004, in Davos, on the subject of The Sun, Solar Analogs and the Climate. PresentlytheSwissmountainresortofDavosisprobablymostwellknown for hosting an event on globalization. However, it is because Davos also happens to be the seat of the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos and World Radiation Center, that this course on a "global" subject was hosted here. Exceptionally, the topic of this course was not purely astrophysical, but themembersoftheSSAAdecidedtosupportitallthesameduetothetimely topic of global warming and its possible link to solar variations. In these times of concern about global warming, it is important to und- stand solar variability and its interaction with the atmosphere. Only in this way can we distinguish between the solar and anthropogenic contributions to the rising temperatures. Therefore, this course addressed the observed va- ability of the Sun and the present understanding of the variability's origin and its impact on the Earth's climate. Comparing the solar variability with that of solar analog stars leads to a better understanding of the solar activity cycle and magnetic activity in general, and helps us to estimate how large the solar variations could be on longer time scales. Inspiteofthefantasticweatherandsnowconditionswhichreignedduring this week, the participants assiduously took part in the lectures. This is proof ofthehighqualityofthelecturesthatthethreespeakers,JoannaHaigh,Mike Lockwood and David Soderblom, delivered. We deeply thank them for their contributions and e?orts and hope that the readers will enjoy the book as much as we enjoyed their lectures.

This volume contains the written versions of the lectures given at the 26th course of the renowned Saas-Fee series. The book represents a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the field of galaxy interaction. Nowadays, galaxies are no longer seen as immutable objects: they evolve, interact, merge, blaze, and reshape. Dynamic forces can induce powerful stellar activity able to transform the matter composition and morphology of galaxies. The lectures included in this book aim at a better understanding of these remarkable and fascinating phenomena. Though the book is intended for graduate students and young post-docs in astrophysics, it contains more advanced and original material, as well as historical perspectives, which will be of great interest to experts and astronomy teachers also.

The enormous advances in observational techniques over the last two decades has produced a wealth of data and unexpected discoveries which have helped to reshape astrophysics as a field with well-formulated theories and sophisticated numerical calculations. In nuclear particle physics, plasma physics, as well as in general relativity, the Universe has become a laboratory for cutting-edge research. The courses collected in the book are intended to provide students with this insight, giving a general background on each topic such as cosmic rays, nuclear and neutrino astrophysics, solar physics and strong fields, as well as a presentation of the current research and open problems. The book is aimed at graduate students in physics and astrophysics, as well as researchers, bridging a gap between the specialized reviews and the comprehensive books.

Advanced technologies in astronomy at various wavelengths have provided us with high resolution and high quality data on the QSO population. This meeting was aimed at understanding the morphology and nature of the host galaxies and environments of QSOs. The invited lectures as well as the contributed and poster papers highlighted the main issues of current research: the stellar and gaseous content of the underlying galaxy; the characterization of the population of companions and the nature of their interaction with the host galaxy; the connection between radio-loud QSO and radio-galaxies, and QSOs and ULIRGs; the evolution with redshift of both the host galaxy and its environment, and the main implications in theories of galaxy formation and evolution. This volume provides a valuable overview and timely update of the exciting and rapidly developing field of QSO hosts and their environments - essential reading for graduate students and researchers.

A major outstanding problem in physics is understanding the nature of the dark energy that is driving the accelerating expansion of the Universe. This thesis makes a significant contribution by demonstrating, for the first time, using state-of-the-art computer simulations, that the interpretation of future galaxy survey measurements is far more subtle than is widely assumed, and that a major revision to our models of these effects is urgently needed. The work contained in the thesis was used by the WiggleZ dark energy survey to measure the growth rate of cosmic structure in 2011 and had a direct impact on the design of the surveys to be conducted by the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, a 650 million euro project to measure dark energy.

The existence of blue straggler stars, which appear younger, hotter, and more massive than their siblings, is at odds with a simple picture of stellar evolution. Such stars should have exhausted their nuclear fuel and evolved long ago to become cooling white dwarfs. They are found to exist in globular clusters, open clusters, dwarf spheroidal galaxies of the Local Group, OB associations and as field stars. This book summarises the many advances in observational and theoretical work dedicated to blue straggler stars. Carefully edited extended contributions by well-known experts in the field cover all the relevant aspects of blue straggler stars research: Observations of blue straggler stars in their various environments; Binary stars and formation channels; Dynamics of globular clusters; Interpretation of observational data and comparison with models. The book also offers an introductory chapter on stellar evolution written by the editors of the book.

The fundamentals of astrochemistry in the gas phase are relatively well established, in contrast to the special relevance attributed to processes involving interstellar dust grains - the solid component of matter diffused among the stars.
This book presents the state of the art in relation to the ways grains interact with gases, the catalytic role played by dust that allows key molecular species (H2 as well as many complex, possibly prebiotic species) to be formed on its surface - which cannot be obtained efficiently by any other mechanisms, and the interaction between solids (dust grains, icy mantles, cometary nuclei, satellites of the giant planets and minor bodies in the Solar system) in space and energetic agents such as UV photons and fast particles.
The presence and importance of PAH, which may represent the smallest component of the grains, is considered in relation to possible astrobiological pathways and the ever-present mystery of the ubiquitous presence of Diffuse Interstellar Bands and their carriers.

The principal elements of the theory of polarized light transfer in planetary atmospheres are expounded in a systematic but concise way. Basic concepts and practical methods are emphasized, both for single and multiple scattering of electromagnetic radiation by molecules and particles in the atmospheres of planets in the Solar System, including the Earth, and beyond. A large part of the book is also useful for studies of light scattering by particles in comets, the interplanetary and interstellar medium, circumstellar disks, reflection nebulae, water bodies like oceans and suspensions of particles in a gas or liquid in the laboratory.

Throughout the book symmetry principles, such as the reciprocity principle and the mirror symmetry principle, are employed. In this way the theory is made more transparent and easier to understand than in most papers on the subject. In addition, significant computational reductions, resulting from symmetry principles, are presented. Hundreds of references to relevant literature are given at the end of the book. Appendices contain supplementary information such as a general exposition on properties of matrices transforming Stokes parameters of light beams. Each chapter concludes with a number of problems with answers or hints for solution.

The readers should have some basic knowledge of physics and mathematics. The book is suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. It will also be of interest to science professionals in one of the many disciplines in which electromagnetic scattering plays an important role, like astrophysics, atmospheric optics, remote sensing, marine optics, biophysics and biomedicine.