NEW ORBITS                               

  ADS            Name        P (yr)      T       e      W(2000)      2004      Author
 RA 2000 DEC    n (deg)      a (")   i (deg)   w (deg)  Last ob.     2005      
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  883         A  1515       170.14   2036.97    0.053   111.6     301.8 0.212  DOCOBO 
01049+3649     2.1159         0.237    68.9   282.1    1999.7094  302.8 0.208  & LING

              RST2324       111.00   1996.88    0.287   164.3     346.9 0.158  OLEVIC & 
03494-1956     3.2432         0.209   135.8   134.5    2001.570   343.1 0.160  CVETKOVIC

              RST2333       154.44   1996.04    0.138    17.2     183.7 0.226  OLEVIC &
04093-2025     2.3310         0.337    74.3   113.8    1993.0977  185.0 0.235  CVETKOVIC

 5447         STT 156       224.63   2022.30    0.477    82.9     196.7 0.28   SCARDIA 
06474+1812     1.6026         0.427   155.8   324.7    2004.210   193.6 0.27   et al. (*)

              2MASSW         11.433  2002.856   0.445    24.8     313.0 0.131  DOCOBO & 
07467+2001    31.4878         0.221   139.9   352.8    2004.023   267.1 0.181  TAMAZIAN

 6811         A  1746 BC     21.78   1998.42    0.079   153.6     307.1 0.149  DOCOBO 
08267+2432    16.5289         0.149    19.1    51.0    1999.3214  322.3 0.153  & LING

 7662         A  2145       119.25   2001.46    0.32     28.2      40.6 0.117  OLEVIC &
10093+2020     3.0189         0.184   118.1   319.4    1995.1438   37.4 0.122  CVETKOVIC

 8035         BU 1077 AB     44.55   2001.94    0.427    48.5      95.2 0.36   SCARDIA 
11037+6145     8.0803         0.600    160.4   268.4    2004.213   78.0 0.40   et al. (*)

              FIN 370 AB     19.16   2006.46    0.251    79.7     337.3 0.103  MANTE 
13574-6229    18.7872         0.148   142.3   171.7    1993.0984  306.9 0.103     

10540         BU 1250       701.60   1649.68    0.077   119.7     114.4 1.889  MANTE 
17248+3044     0.5131         1.754     0.9   173.2    2001.362   114.9 1.889      

10621         A   352        64.05   1982.58    0.309     1.3     326.0 0.054  DOCOBO 
17324+2848     0.6206         0.177    98.6   292.9    1996.5291  315.8 0.045  & LING

              STA   3        89.06   2004.96    0.602   133.0     296.2 0.047  OLEVIC &
19073+3606     4.0423         0.128   122.2   228.8    1992.3105  280.9 0.039  CVETKOVIC

13028         BU  148 AB    783.31   2032.84    0.620    38.1     230.9 0.607  LING 
19520-1021     0.4596         1.365   120.5   217.5    2002.602   229.9 0.605     


(*) SCARDIA, PRIEUR, ARISTIDI, KOECHLIN and SALA




                                  ANNOUNCEMENT 

THE SPECKLE CAMERA PISCO IS NOW OPERATIONAL ON THE 1-METER ZEISS TELESCOPE OF
I.N.A.F. - OSSERVATORIO ASTRONOMICO DI BRERA AT MERATE, ITALY

PISCO is a speckle camera which belongs to Midi-Pyrnes Observatory (Toulouse,
France) and was used from 1993 to 1998 with the 2-meter Bernard Lyot telescope
of the Pic du Midi Observatory (France). Due to a change of policy of the time-
allocation committee, it was no longer used after 1998 for regular observations 
of visual binaries. A group of European astronomers involved in the study of 
binary stars (from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, and Poland) were very 
disappointed by such a situation and decided to look for a new host telescope on 
which PISCO could be mounted and operated at regular times throughout the year.
In 2000 they investigated the possibility of using PISCO with the 2-meter
telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences at Rozhen (Bulgaria). This project failed because of technical problems. 
In the summer of 2003, M. Scardia proposed to install this instrument on the 
1-meter Zeiss telescope in Merate. In November 2003, PISCO and the intensified 
CCD camera of Nice University (France) were successfully installed at the 
Cassegrain focus of the Zeiss telescope under the supervision of J.L. Prieur and
L. Koechlin, with the help of the OAB technical staff, during a memorable week 
of pouring rain! After a few weeks of tests performed by M. Scardia, PISCO became 
fully operational in January 2004. The subsequent observations have already 
confirmed the possibility of observing visual binaries with separations down to 
0".14 and with luminosity differences up to 4 magnitudes between the components.

Scardia M., Prieur J.-L., Koechlin L., Aristidi E., Lampens P., Strigachev A.,
Oblak E., Kurpinska-Winiarska M., Ghigo M., Mazzoleni F., and Sala M..



                                        NOTES 

* Errata in Information Circular No. 152

   - In the entry for WDS 22344+2623 (COU 540), the value of omega should be
     162.5, not 13.5.

* Others papers on double stars published in 2003

   - ALZNER, A.: "Micrometric measures of double stars from 1998.02 to 2002.92".
     The Webb Soc. Double Star Section Cir. 11, 10 (2003).

   - DOMMANGET, J.: "The Mass/Eccentricity Limit in Double Star Astronomy".
     Journal of Astrophysics & Astronomy 24, 99 (2003)

   - TOBAL, T. & PLANAS, J.: "OAG General Catalogue of 10.000 Measurements of 
     Visual Double Stars (1970-2003 / J2000,0)".  Garraf Astronomical Observatory 
     (Barcelona-Spain). December 2003 


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

The deadline for contributions to Information Circular No. 154 is:
     
                            October 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