NEW ORBITS                               

  ADS            Name          P (yr)      T       e      W(2000)      2003      Author
 RA 2000 DEC    n (deg)        a (")   i (deg)   w (deg)  Last ob.     2004      
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17180         A 1249          129.72   1989.44    0.046    59.4     131.0 0.046  ZIRM
00024+1047     2.7751           0.366    97.2   231.4    1995.9180  112.4 0.055     

   51         HU 1201          47.06   1983.89    0.651   128.1     307.7 0.216  ZIRM
00055+3406     7.6505           0.138    91.5    23.9    1998.7798  307.6 0.216     

 2044         SEE 19          212.56   2027.22    0.899   177.1     271.3 0.207  LING
02405-2408     1.6936           0.523   112.3    63.5    1996.8954  269.4 0.201     

              LPM 248         298.34   1978.30    0.320    39.9     283.7 1.136  ZIRM
06579-4417     1.2067           4.396   107.9    42.2    1993.9824  278.7 1.194     

 6999         BU 586          962.25   1992.91    0.672    71.4     200.4 0.160  MANTE 
08474-1703     0.3741           0.919    65.2    83.5    1996.8666  204.0 0.168     
 
              FIN 364          35.84   1989.18    0.951    97.9     124.0 0.149  MANTE 
10465-6416    10.0446           0.145   106.0   122.8    1993.0903  123.2 0.155    

 9909         STF 1998 AB      45.90   2043.12    0.743    27.0     330.3 0.557  DOCOBO
16044-1122     7.8431           0.654    33.3   162.2    2001.5619  335.7 0.624  & LING

11640         FIN 332 Aa (I)   50.96   1956.22    0.032   313.9     316.4 0.149  MASON &
18455+0530     7.0644           0.165    96.2     9.0    2001.5697  315.5 0.155  HARTKOPF

11640         FIN 332 Aa (II)  27.01   1994.46    0.798   137.1     317.0 0.154  MASON &
18455+0530    13.3284           0.095   105.6    13.5    2001.5697  316.3 0.160  HARTKOPF

11640         FIN 332 Aa       57.92   1992.88    0.166   131.5     314.6 0.156  OLEVIC &
18455+0530     6.2157           0.174    98.8    79.0    1997.3945  313.5 0.164  CVETKOVIC

11640         FIN 332 Bb (I)  100.14   1973.46    0.256   140.5     298.1 0.104  MASON &
18455+0530     3.5950           0.170   103.8   108.6    2001.5697  295.8 0.098  HARTKOPF

11640         FIN 332 Bb (II)  34.49   1972.65    0.988   235.2     297.7 0.095  MASON &
18455+0530    10.4378           0.201   111.7    93.3    2001.5697  294.7 0.083  HARTKOPF

11640         FIN 332 Bb       93.92   1972.23    0.242   140.3     117.8 0.109  OLEVIC &
18455+0530     3.8330           0.163   105.3   278.6    1997.3945  115.5 0.103  CVETKOVIC

              WOR 9           210.09   1937.47    0.150   154.3     279.4 0.564  ZIRM
20302+2651     1.7136           1.421   108.0   130.8    1996.626   275.9 0.547     
  
              FIN 336          43.48   1972.28    0.593   170.3     127.7 0.123  OLEVIC &
20311-1503     8.2803           0.124    55.1    96.1    1996.5320  131.5 0.123  CVETKOVIC

              MCA 62 Aa        56.41   1974.08    0.104    93.6     271.8 0.133  OLEVIC &
20410+3905     6.3818           0.134    86.2   330.7    1988.6631  272.2 0.139  CVETKOVIC

              LDS 720 BC      209.     2082.      0.256    50.      173.1 3.012  HARTKOPF
20452-3120     1.7225           3.18    137.     36.     1991.46    171.8 2.984  & MASON (x)

14424         BU 367 AB        99.99   1934.17    0.256   118.5     141.5 0.33   SCARDIA 
20550+2805     3.6002           0.407    68.5   185.0    2001.707   143.6 0.31   et al. (*)

14942         A 2288          105.66   1949.52    0.623   130.2     235.4 0.31   SCARDIA 
21243+0343     3.4071           0.294   130.0    79.4    1995.574   233.9 0.31   et al. (*)

              FIN 330 AB       20.75   1984.64    0.590    27.8     343.1 0.044  OLEVIC &
21477-3054    17.3488           0.096   114.5   179.3    1996.8240  287.9 0.025  CVETKOVIC

              HO 183          122.52   1972.22    0.944    27.9     223.9 2.079  ZIRM
22248+2233     2.9384           1.315   140.4   348.4    1996.87    223.6 2.109     

(*) SCARDIA, PRIEUR, KOECHLIN and ARISTIDI

(x) NOTE: LDS 720 (WDS 20452-3120) is a high common-proper-motion triple, comprised of 
an ~80 arcminute AB pair and a 3-4 arcsecond BC pair. Following up on a comment by F.M. 
Rica Romero (Spanish American League of Astron., Circ #1, 2001) orbital analysis of BC 
determined that several observations in the WDS attributed to it were actually of a 
similar binary located ~80 arcseconds south of LDS 720A. As the first measure of this 
pair appears to have been by Charles Worley in 1978, it has been designated 
WDS 20452-3122 = WOR  40.


****************************************************************************************

                         Summary of Sydney Business Meeting
                                  by C.D. Scarfe 

This is a short summary of the business meeting of Commission 26, which took place in 
the afternoon of July 18, 2003, during the recent IAU General Assembly in Sydney. It 
was chaired by the outgoing president, C. Scarfe, and was attended by the following: 
C. Allen, F. Arenou, R. Argyle, A. Boden, J. Davis, F. Fekel, W. Hartkopf, J. Kub'at, 
J. Ling, B. Mason, T. Oswalt, T. Pauls, D. Pourbaix, W. Tango, T. ten Brummelaar, A. 
Tokovinin, N. Turner, W. van Altena, E. Weis and H. Zinnecker. A more complete report 
will be published in the IAU Transactions, and a preprint of that report is available 
on the Commission's website.

C. Scarfe gave a report on events during the past triennium. He announced the deaths, 
during that period, of members N. Argue, E. Cabrita, M. Herrera, and K. Strand, as well 
as that of D. Zulevic during the previous triennium, and the meeting observed a few 
moments of silence in their memory. 

Twenty new members have joined the Commission, bringing the total membership to 128, 
from 34 countries.  

The chairman then reported on the recent election, in which just over half the 
membership voted. For the period 2003 to 2006, the president will be W. Hartkopf, and 
the vice-president, C. Allen. The OC will be made up of new members J. Davis, E. Oblak 
and T. Oswalt, along with continuing members F. Fekel, P. Lampens and J. Ling. 

The chairman then gave a brief account of IAU Colloquium 191, held in M'erida, 
Yucat'an, M'exico in February 2003, and followed it with some remarks on other 
proposals for meetings, which had not been accepted by the Executive Committee. He 
concluded with some comments on the new rules for the conduct of Commission and 
Division operations.

W. Hartkopf gave a short summary of developments at the Commission's website, and 
invited suggestions for further improvements. It is intended that the site's URL will 
remain http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/dsl.html\#iau for the next three years at least.

B. Mason spoke about Special Session 3 on a new classification scheme for double stars. 
That session had approved a resolution adopting the WDS scheme and encouraging 
completion of a complete catalogue by the Washington group. The Commission endorsed 
that resolution, and is currently setting up a Working Group to support that work.

J. Ling discussed the history and current status of the Commission's Information 
Circulars, which were begun by P. Muller almost fifty years ago. They are now 
distributed electronically, and their contents are becoming increasingly diverse. They 
have ISSN number 1024-7769, and are listed as IAUDS on the NASA Astrophysics Data 
System. Several new directions for the Circulars were discussed.

W. Hartkopf thanked C. Scarfe and the outgoing OC members for their efforts during the 
past three years, and then turned his attention to the next three. Some possible topics 
and sites for meetings were discussed, as well as future catalogues and a CDROM that 
would collect several of the latter together.

There followed several short reports on major new observing facilities and additions to 
established ones. J. Davis described recent observations with the Sydney University 
Stellar Interferometer (SUSI). T. ten Brummelaar outlined the approach to completion of 
the CHARA array on Mt. Wilson. T. Pauls spoke about recent developments at the Navy 
Prototype Optical Interferometer. Finally, H. Zinnecker pointed out that the first 
results had been obtained with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer.

Next came some short reports on new major catalogues. B. Mason reported a large increase 
in the size of the Washington Double star Catalog, and announced that a new CD version 
will shortly be available. W. Hartkopf described the rapid progress of the USNO CCD 
Astrographic Catalog and a project to re-scan the epoch-1930 plates of the AGK2 using 
modern equipment. Then D. Pourbaix spoke about the Base de donn'ees des 'etoiles doubles 
et multiples de Besancon, on behalf of E. Oblak, who was unable to attend. He also 
described his own work for Commission 30 on the Ninth Catalogue of Spectroscopic Binary 
Orbits, since it is also relevant to Commission 26.

R. Argyle followed these talks with a discussion of amateur projects in double-star 
measurement, some of which are very substantial and of high quality. 
	
H. Zinnecker noted that some recently discovered giant planets are in orbit around 
components of binary stars, which raises the interesting question of the long-term 
stability of such planets' orbits.

A letter from P. Lampens was read. It expressed concern over the difficulty encountered 
by some double star observers in gaining access to telescopes to pursue long-term 
projects, and in getting data published in widely read journals, so that others may use 
them, even if it is premature to draw astrophysically useful conclusions from them. 
There was widespread agreement that these concerns affect many people, and the meeting 
agreed to include formal statements of concern in the published report. For details, 
please see the preprint on the Commission website.

The meeting was then adjourned. 

****************************************************************************************

                                   ANNOUNCEMENT


A New Cassegrain telescope (D= 0.62 m; F = 6.2 m) has been installed at the Ram'on
Mar'ia Aller Observatory. Among its main missions, double and multiple star research 
will occupy a prominent place.

J. A. Docobo
Director
R. M. Aller Observatory
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
Spain

****************************************************************************************

The deadline for contributions to Information Circular No. 151 is:
     
                            February 15th 2004


         J. A. Docobo (oadoco@usc.es)
         J. F. Ling (oafana@usc.es)
         Tel: +34 981592747
         Fax: +34 981597054

         Observatorio Astronomico "R. M. Aller"
         P. O. Box 197
         Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
         SPAIN
         http://www.usc.es/astro


ISSN: 1024-7769