We have recently carried out an infrared parallax programme on the UKIRT conducted with a 2562 array. Our observations were made in the near-infrared K-band which is ideal for observing red stars and brown dwarf candidates and has the advantage that differential colour refraction is negligible. We find a parallax of πabs = 156.0 ±13.3 mas for the archetypal late-type M dwarf vB 10 and πabs =11.1 ± 7.5 mas for PC 0025+0447 which we conclude is too distant to be a clear case of a brown dwarf and is probably a late-type M dwarf close to the hydrogen-burning limit. Recent improvements in telescopes and instrumentation working in the infrared should enable accuracies of ~ 1 mas to be obtained for future infrared parallax programmes.

Spectra of M dwarfs are rich in atomic and molecular lines. These spectra provide such basicinformation as Teff (or radius), log g (or mass), surface chemical composition, and something more (e.g. activity) if properly interpreted. It is recognized, however, that spectra of M dwarfs are already dimmed by the dust formed in their photospheres (Tsuji et al. 1996a) and this effect, which has been overlooked until recently, should be taken into account in any interpretation and analysis of the spectra of very low mass objects (VLMOs) including late M dwarfs and brown dwarfs.

We compare observations of the binary system CM Draconis with synthetic spectra. Spectroscopic observations from 0.40 to 2.41μm, combined with photometry and the accurately known surface gravity enable us to estimate the temperature and metallicity using detailed spectra synthesis. We find discrepancies between the analysis of the infrared and optical spectrum: while the optical spectral energy distribution (SED) yields a metal-rich solution with Teff = 3000K, the infrared SED yields around 3200K and —0.8 ≤ [M/H] ≤ —0.6 compatible with the high space motion of the system. The low-metallicity characteristics of the infrared SED could be real and is partly supported by the detailed analysis of the atomic lines in the optical region. Although, the known incompleteness of the TiO and H2O line lists in the models may cause substantial systematic errors.

Most of the flare stars (FSs) discovered in that field are very faint and are missing from all previously published lists of Pleiades cluster members. Reliable membership probabilities (MPs) were only determined for one third of these objects while the rest were supposed to be more or less probable members with a few exceptions. A recent proper motion survey of that field (Schilbach et al. 1995) based on plates taken with the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope and extended to an area of 16.5 square degrees provided new cluster MPs and also photometric data even for a number of the lowest luminosity stars (in fact the faintest object measured has V = 18.26). Of the 520 known FSs in the field 437 (85%) were successfully identified, their J2000.0 coordinates, high precision proper motion components and apparent photographic R magnitudes (and for the majority of them their V and B magnitudes too) determined. Based on these data new cluster MPs have been deduced which show that a considerable number (40%) of the so called Pleiades FSs are not members of that cluster at all. This conclusion follows the tendency already found: when we involve more and more faint FSs into the investigations the percentage of non-members monotonically increases (cf. Haro et al. 1982 and references therein).

The Tycho Catalogue contains proper motions and low precision parallaxes with a median precisions of 25 mas, while having high precision B and V magnitudes (median precision of 0.07 and 0.06 respectivly). The number of highparallax stars is quite unexpected, with over 30 previously unreferenced, non-Hipparcos, stars with a parallax >500 mas and over 2000 with a parallax >250 mas. While many of these are probably mistakes, the completeness limit of Tycho and the precise magnitudes provide us with a way to intelligently build a complete picture of the nearby star field. Catalogues of nearby stars provide us with many fundamental parameters in the field of stellar astronomy, but the completness of known stars within say even 8pcs is still underestimated by about 30%, i.e., 50-60 systems (T.J. Henry, CSSS8, ASP Conf Series 64, 1994).

In a new program at Torino we are using the Tycho Catalogue to intelligently build a list of possible candidates for a 1Opc volume. Figure 1 shows that Tycho will contain basically all ZAMS to spectral type M3 within 10 pes, M5 to 4pcs and M6 to 2pcs. A comparison of the photometric and Tycho distances provides a list free of giants and systems where binarity has affected the color. This list is then added to the Torino Parallax program where we expect to provide more precise parallaxes.

As we approach the 21st Century, enormous technical advances are being made in the acquisition of galaxy redshifts. This Joint Discussion offers a perspective on those advances and the associated redshift surveys. It is representative, but by no means all inclusive.

My introduction offers some historical background, against which the new methods and achievements can be measured.

Redshift surveys tells us about the spatial distribution and evolution of galaxies. Yet the study of large-scale structures in the distribution of galaxies goes back further than one might imagine. The first accurate description of the Virgo Supercluster was given by John Herschel in the mid-19thCentury. To paraphrase Sir John, “Virgo is the central condensation of a roughly spherical cluster of nebulae - our system lies outside the denser part of the cluster, but is involved with its outlying members - forming an element of some one of its protuberances or branches”.

Victorian science might have beaten Hubble had more people believed John Herschel - and had he himself more confidence in his interpretation. Few were prepared to accept the ‘Island Universe’ theory that it implied, and strong criticism followed. Moreover, Herschel was very reluctant to go against the beliefs of his revered father, William Herschel, who, though once believing in the ‘Island Universes’, had in later life accepted that all nebulae were somehow gaseous condensations in our system. Consequently, even John Herschel’s textbook still stated the older, incorrect interpretation.

The concept and the present status of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are described, with emphasis on the instrumentation aspect of the project.

Fundamental to our understanding of the universe is the evolution of structures, from galaxies to clusters of galaxies to large-scale sheets and filaments of galaxies and voids. The investigation of the evolution of large-scale structure not only provides us with the key test of theories of structure formation, but also allows us to measure fundamental cosmological parameters. The CNOC2 (Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology) Field Galaxy Redshift Survey is the first large redshift survey of faint galaxies carried out with the explicit goal of investigating the evolution of large scale structure. This survey also provides the largest redshift and photometric data set currently available for the study of galaxy population and evolution at the moderate redshift range between 0.1 and 0.6. In this paper we describe the scope and technique of the survey, its status, and some preliminary results.

Recent advances in the technology of rotating liquid-mirrors now make feasible the construction of large optical telescopes for dedicated survey programs. Two three-metre-class astronomical telescopes have been built and asix-metre telescope is under construction. These instruments observe in zenith-pointing mode, using drift-scanning CCD cameras to record continuous imaging of a strip of sky typically 20 arcmin wide. This enables them to observe of order 100 square degrees of sky with an integration time of a few minutes per night. Data can be co-added from night to night in order to increase the depth of the survey. Liquid-mirror telescopes are particularly wellsuited to surveys using broad or intermediate bandwidth filters to obtain photometric redshifts and spectral energy distributions for faint galaxies and quasars.

DEEP is a multi-institutional program designed to undertake a major new spectroscopic survey of faint field galaxies with the Keck II 10-m telescope. The scientific goals are broad and include exploring galaxy formation and evolution, mapping the large scale structure at moderate to high redshifts, and constraining the nature and distribution of dark matter and cosmology. Besides the primary goal of securing large numbers of redshifts (10, 000+) to very faint limits of I ~ 23, DEEP intends to acquire spectra of high enough quality and spectral resolution to extract rotation curves, velocity dispersions, age estimates, and chemical abundances for a brighter subset of galaxies. A new imaging spectrograph for Keck called DEIMOS has been specifically designed to achieve these goals and is currently scheduled for completion by the end of 1998. DEIMOS will provide anoverall gain for multi-object spectroscopy of about 7x compared to the current low-resolution spectrograph (LRIS). While awaiting for DEIMOS to be operational, the interim DEEP science programs have been diverse, but largely concentrated on spectroscopy of faint galaxies observed with HST, especially in the “Groth Strip” and Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and its flanking fields. Recent highlights include redshift and kinematic studies of compact galaxies, high redshift (z ~ 3) galaxies, and distantspirals.

This IAU Joint Discussion proposes to address the subject of redshift surveys in the 21st century. This paper, however, deals with two major new redshift surveys that those involved sincerely hope will be completed in the 20th century. Nonetheless, these surveys are relevant to the topic of the meeting, as they clearly foreshadow the scope and style of redshift surveys, if not in the coming millennium, at least in the coming decade.

The surveys are being carried out with the new Two Degree Field (2dF) facility on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), a 400-fibre multi-object spectrograph with the capability, as described in Section 2, to increase the size of redshift surveys by an order of magnitude over current best efforts. The main scientific goals, survey strategy and some preliminary results from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey are outlined in Section 3, while Section 4 similarly describes the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey. Further information can be found on the WWW at http://www.aao.gov.au/2df/ for the 2dF facility, at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~colless/2dF/ for thegalaxy survey and at http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/rs/qso_surv.html for the QSO survey.

Several groups have been successful in the survey of high-redshift (z > 4) quasars. For example, Schneider et al. (1994) and Schmidt et al. (1995) were successful in detecting 90 quasars with 2.75 < z < 4.75, R < 21 for 62deg2 using Palomar Transit Grism. Among them, there are 9 quasars with z > 4.0. Storrie-Lombardi et al. (1996) were detected 31 quasars with z > 4.0, mT < 19 for 2500deg2 by APM photographic multicolor survey using UK Schmidt telescope. Survey observations of quasars up to now have to select one of the following conditions; wide field surveys using photographic Schmidt plate which cover large areas but do not go faint enough, or deep surveys using large telescopes which go faint magnitude but which cover relatively small areas.

With the current convergence of determinations of the Hubble Constant (e.g. The Extragalactic Distance Scale, 1997, Livio, Donahue and Panagia, eds.) to values within ±25% rather than a factor of two, and the clear possibility of determining q0 using high redshift supernovae (Garnavich et al. 1998), the major remaining problem in observational cosmology is the determination of Ω — what is the dark matter, how much is there, and how is it distributed?

The most direct approach to the last two parts of the question has been to study galaxy dynamics, first through the motions of galaxies in binaries, groups and clusters, and in the last decade and a half, driven by the observation of our motion w.r.t. the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and thenotion that DM must be clumped on larger scales than galaxy clusters if (Ω is to be unity, through the study of large scale galaxy flows.

The ratio of the mass density to the closure mass density, Ω, is thought by most observers to be ~0.1-0.3, primarily based on the results of dynamical measurements of galaxy clusters and, more recently, gravitational lensing studies of clusters. In contrast, most theoretical cosmologists opt for a high density universe, Ω = 1.0, based on the precepts of the inflation scenario, the difficulty of forming galaxies in low density models given the observed smoothness of the microwave background radiation, and the observational evidence from the matching of the available large scale flow measurements (and the absolute microwave background dipole velocity) to the local density field. However this last result is extremely controversial—matching the velocity field to the density field derived from IRAS (60μ) selected galaxy samples yields high Ω values (e.g., Dekel et al. 1993) but matching to optically selected samples yields low values (Hudson 1994; Lahav et al. 1994; Santiago et al. 1995). On small scales, the high Ω camp argues that the true matter distribution is much more extended than the distribution of galaxies, so the dynamical mass estimates are biased low.

Large and deep spectroscopic samples of galaxies are essential to study galaxies and large scale structure evolution out to look-back times ~ 10% the current age of the vmiverse. Keeping this scientific and observational goal in mind, we designed and are presently building two wide-field imaging spectrographs to be installed at the Nasmyth foci of the ESO-VLT Unit Telescopes 3 and 4.

In China, we will start to build a new spectroscopic survey telescope. It will be a meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope. The optical system is horizontal. The primary mirror is spherical and segmented. It faces towards the north. In its spherical center there is a plane mirror which is segmented too. The different shape of reflecting Schmidt plate is realized by active optics. The clear aperture is 4 m and f-ratio is 5. The angular field of view is 5 square degree, 4000 objects can be observed simultaneously by using optical fibre. The science goal is to make a 20000 square degrees spectroscopic survey, including ten million galaxies and stars, many variable objects and the identification of numerous objects found by radio, x-ray, IR and other survey in these sky areas.

Electronic publishing of journals has already arrived, and is established. The Astrophysical Journal and Letters, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplements and New Astronomy have been publishing a parallel electronic edition since the beginning of 1997. Astronomy and Astrophysics will follow in 1998, and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society are being developed. The American Astronomical Society has been the leader in developing electronic publishing in astrophysics. They have led not only by being first, but also by the high standards of their electronic publication.

One of the stories that school children in Great Britain learn at an early age is about King Canute II. Canute was a Danish king who ruled part of what is now Great Britain from 1016 to 1035. He is famous because he sat bythe sea as the tide was coming in and commanded the tide to go back. It didnot.

Electronic publication is going to bring many changes to the way research is done and published. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages. There are certainly problems which we have not yet realized. The purpose of this Joint Discussion is to stimulate a discussion of what the international astrophysical community would like from electronic publishing. Please do not say that you want electronic publishing to go away, because then you will be behaving like King Canute. But the publishers of journals and the bodies responsible for maintaining the quality of publication are feeling their way into completely new territory. To exploit electronic publishing to the full, and to minimize the disadvantages, discussion in the community is needed.

Electronic publishing will bring great connectivity into journals. While looking at one paper, a click on the mouse will immediately connect with another paper published in another journal. Large tables, theoretical or observational, will be read in the same way from databases. An electronic publication will longer be static. It can be modified to refer to papers published later, it can contain movies or computer programs that can be executed online.

Links are important. The providers of electronic astronomical data are linked together the way no other science is. Electronic journals are part of this distributed, linked resource. Permanence is important. The AAS journals use a new publishing process which ensures the ability to maintain permanent access to our electronic journals. Process is important. With the right process, we have been able to add links automatically to our journal; links to references, links to citations (where the electronic material exists) and internal links for ease of navigation within the journal. Readers like this. Links are important.

Archiving electronic journals is complex. There are many questions; Who archives? What is archived? How many copies should be archived. How can one ensure the integrity of electronic documents? How can access be maintained? Technology will provide some answers. Electronic archives will require periodic refreshing and migration to new technology. Many factors remain unknown at this time.