Assuming that most stars form in clusters (Lada & Lada 2003), one might initially expect to find most massive stars in stellar clusters and to detect most of the UV emission in young compact stellar clusters. However, Meurer et al. (1995) showed that in starburst galaxies only 20% of the UV emission at 2200Å is detected in clusters while 80% is diffuse emission from sources in the inter-cluster medium. This phenomenon is also observed for normal galaxies (Hoopes et al. 2001).

The winding up of a conference like this provides the opportunity to look (1) backwards at how we reached the present stage of understanding of binary star behavior and its relationship to the rest of astronomy, (2) around at the garden of unsolved problems, and (3) cautiously forward at what might come next.

We discuss the implications for the cosmic re-ionization from the optical afterglow spectrum of GRB050904 at z = 6.3

We present an analysis of the fine–scale structure of the neutral ISM as traced via the 21-cm line of atomic hydrogen (HI) in the nearby galaxy M 81. The data show a stunning amount of detail in the form of 330 expanding shells and holes in the neutral ISM of M 81. A comparison with similar structures found in two other spirals and two dwarf galaxies (M 31, M 33, IC 2574 and Holmberg II) reveals that the ISM in M 81 shares a lot of similarities with the two spirals, whereas the structure of its ISM is different to that in dwarf galaxies. The sizes of the HI holes in M 81 range from 80 pc (close to the resolution limit) to 600 pc; the expansion velocities can reach 20 km s−1; estimated ages are 2.5 to 35 Myrs and the energies involved range from 1050 to 3.5 x 1052 ergs. The amount of neutral gas involved is of order 104 to 106 solar masses.

We investigate the possibility of detecting deep convection in the Sun by computing travel-time shifts induced by convective flows interacting with propagating waves. The convection zone is modeled using a velocity profile taken from an Anelastic convection simulation. We present results obtained from a ray calculation of travel-time shifts. We compare these results with a full 3D calculation of the wave-flow interaction.

We develop a two-flow model of accretion onto a black hole which incorporates the effect of the local magneto-rotational instability. The flow consists of an accretion disk and an accreting corona, and the local dynamo affects the disk/corona mass exchange. The model is aimed to explain the power spectra of the sources in their soft, disk-dominated states. The local perturbations of the magnetic field in the disk are described as in King et al. (2004) and Mayer & Pringle (2006), but the time-dependent local magnetic field is assumed to affect the local supply of the material to the corona. The accreting corona model can reproduce the broad power spectra of Soft State X-ray binaries and AGN. The model, however, predicts that (i) sources undergoing radiation pressure instability (GRS 1915+105) should have systematically steeper power spectra than other sources, (ii) AGN should have systematically steeper power spectra than GBH. More measurements of power spectra of Soft State sources are clearly needed.

It has been established that massive stars form in dense clusters, when large molecular clouds collapse. However, the high obscuration and small spatial scales make it difficult to investigate the earliest stage of high–mass protostellar objects (HMPOs). Therefore methanol masers are of special interests as they are closely associated with HMPOs and offer high spatial resolution; they probe the massive star formation environment at the unique scale of a few AU (1 mas corresponds to 5 AU at 5 kpc).

We present VLBI observations of methanol masers discovered in an unbiased survey along the Galactic plane. We compare their positions with infrared surveys. In general, the masers do not coincide with infrared objects. That implies they are already present at a very early evolution stage of HMPOs when the dense surroundings still absorb other radiation. In addition we present maps of five methanol masers towards HMPOs with milliarcsecond resolution taken with the recently extended European VLBI Network. These sources show a wide variety of morphologies, indicating they arise in different events going on in close surroundings of HMPOs, i.e. outflows, discs or shocks. One source G23.657−00.127 displays a regularly shaped ring which appears as a great laboratory for further research of a single HMPO. Proper motion studies should reveal an expansion or rotation of the maser components in 2–3 years.

So at last we come to the end of our meeting! I have the honor of being the last speaker at Symposium 240, and apparently the last speaker of the GA itself! I will keep my comments very brief, so that you all may experience a few more minutes of sightseeing or perhaps another fine Czech beer before beginning your travels home.

Major properties of the solar atmosphere and wind are not understood. The energy distribution of the solar atmosphere perturbations, over nearly ten orders of magnitude in energy, is close (within one order of magnitude) to a power-law of index -2, even though there is no agreement on the detailed shape. There is no agreed explanation of the origin of the solar wind, either, nor of the fact that the total wind energy flux is independent of speed, latitude, and phase of solar cycle, with an average base flux of 70 W/m$^2$ – a figure that is similar for a number of other cool stellar winds, and is close to the total observed energy flux of solar atmosphere perturbations. A major theoretical difficulty is that both coronal heating and wind production depend fundamentally on the heat flux, and the solar atmosphere is not collisional enough for classical transport theory to hold. Heat transport thus behaves non classically and the particle velocity distributions may have significant high energy tails, which should dramatically affect coronal heating and solar wind acceleration, in a way that is outside the scope of standard MHD.

The value of the $\alpha$ ratio, the number of PNe per unit bolometric luminosity in a galaxy, is computed using stellar population synthesis models covering the whole range of Hubble types of galaxies.

Model predictions are compared with the PNe counts in the Local Group, which indicate a fairly constant value of $\alpha$ – between 1 and 6 PNe per 10$^7$ solar luminosities – along the Hubble sequence.

The results of a pilot study on the intrinsic 3D distribution of stars in edge-on disk galaxies are presented. The 3D disk structure of a sample of 12 edge-on galaxies has been reconstructed through a direct deprojection of the observed two-dimensional images. The deprojection method – which utilises the so called Fourier slice theorem and assumes axial symmetry – has been tested with a large set of artificial galaxy models seen under a variety of inclinations (i = 80–90°) and with different spatial dust and optical depths distributions.

We discuss anisotropies in the near-IR background between 1 to a few microns. This background is expected to contain a signature of primordial galaxies. We have measured fluctuations of resolved galaxies with Spitzer imaging data and we are developing a rocket-borne instrument (the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment, or CIBER) to search for signatures of primordial galaxy formation in the cosmic near-infrared extra-galactic background.

We present TCS-CAIN, a NIR survey of the Galactic plane, recently made public at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and some results derived from it: with star counts derived directly from it the structure of the inner the Milky Way can be dissected, and with low resolution spectra, (part of a follow-up program), its nature, specifically the metallicity distribution in the inner 4 kpc of the Galaxy, further understood.

Some stellar maser sources at preplanetary stage have very thick circumstellar envelopes, for which no near-infrared identifications have been made. We investigated such stars at radio/NIR/MIR wavelengths using the NRO 45-m, ANU 2.2-m, UH 2.2-m, and SUBARU 8.2-m telescopes. Furthermore, using the Spitzer/Glimpse survey of the Galactic plane, we found counterparts in the 3.6 micron band for all of the OH/IR objects without previous NIR identification. One of the most interesting objects among these is IRAS 18450–0148 (W43A) with collimated outflows. Their spectra indicate that they have massive thick disks.

We consider the influence of decaying dark matter particles and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) on the ability of neutral gas at redshifts z = 10-50 to emit and absorb in the 21cm line. We show that the signal in 21 cm is sensitive to properties of decaying particles and UHECRs, and conclude that future radio telescopes (LOFAR, LWA and SKA) are able not only to detect 21cm signal originated from decaying particles and UHECRs, but discriminate between them as well.

The molecular cloud associated with the Sh 254-258 group of 5 small H II regions appears to be forming a (late)-OB association. We have mapped the associated molecular cloud in the J=2-1 line of the CO molecule over 0.75o × 1o, and the CO J=3-2 line toward the 2 main peaks, with the University of Arizona Heinrich Hertz Submm Telescope (HHT). We propose a scenario for sequential formation of the stars exciting the H II regions, triggered by the compression/heating of the molecular gas.

Wulff Dieter Heintz, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Swarthmore College, passed away at his home on 10 June 2006, following a two-year battle with lung cancer. He had just turned 76 a week earlier. Wulff was one of the leading authorities on visual double stars, and was also a chess master. A prominent educator, researcher, and scholar, Wulff was noted for being both succinct and meticulous in everything he did. Wulff Heintz was born on 3 June 1930 in Würzburg (Bavaria), Germany. Naturally left-handed, the young Wulff's elementary school teachers forced him to learn to write “correctly” using his right hand, and so he became ambidextrous. During the 1930s, Wulff's family saw the rise of Adolph Hitler and lived under the repressive Nazi regime. Conditions were austere, and it was often difficult to find fuel to keep the house warm. As a teenager during World War II, Wulff listened to his family radio for any news from the outside world. He used to say that he loved the blackouts during the bombing runs because it made it much easier to see the stars. One night, an incendiary bomb landed on the roof of his family home, and Wulff climbed up to the roof and extinguished it. The next morning, he saw that his high school had been completely leveled by Allied bombs. As Germany continued to suffer massive losses on the Russian Front, primarily due to unexpectedly severe winters, teenage boys were inducted into the military and sent off to replenish the troops. To avoid an uncertain fate, Wulff hid out in a farmhouse in the countryside outside Munich. When the Allied troops invaded Germany in 1945, the young Wulff volunteered to translate information from the American and British soldiers to the local villagers. During this time, the soldiers taught Wulff how to smoke cigarettes, a habit which he continued until his final days, even after having been diagnosed with lung cancer.

We observed a sample of three Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), Abell 1836-BCG, Abell 2052-BCG, and Abell 3565-BCG, with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Space Telescope. For each target galaxy we obtained high-resolution spectroscopy of the Hα and [N II] λ6583 emission lines at three slit positions, to measure the central ionized-gas kinematics. ACS images in three different filters (F435W, F625W, and FR656N) have been used to determine the optical depth of the dust, stellar mass distribution near the nucleus, and intensity map. We present supermassive black hole (SBH) mass estimates for two galaxies which show regular rotation curves and strong central velocity gradients, and an upper limit on the SBH mass of the third one. For the SBHs of Abell 1836-BCG and Abell 3565-BCG, we derived M• = 4.8+0.8−0.7 × 109 M⊙ and M• = 1.3+0.3−0.4 × 109 M⊙ at 1 σ confidence level, respectively. For the SBH of Abell 2052-BCG, we found M• ≤ 7.3 × 109 M⊙.

By using bidimensional Fourier techniques, we have analyzed H (1.6μm) images of a sample of 48 spiral galaxies taken from the OSUBSGS. We found that two-armed spirals (m = 2) are the more important structures in the sample, but some galaxies present higher m = 1 (lopsided) or m = 3 (three armed spirals). A weak correlation between m = 2 pitch angles and Eskridge et al. (2002) classification is also evident, but there is no correlation at all between those angles and RC3 classification or Elmegreen arm class.

It is suggested that we are already in the weak solar cycles series since the start of cycle 23. The interplanetary magnetic filed and the solar wind speed and density are expected to drop considerably during the approaching second weak cycle number 24 and the following ones leading to inflation of the magnetosphere. The corona is also expected to cool down relative to normal cycles corona. A daily background coronal index is proposed. The mechanism of production of weak cycles is tied to the rapid rotation of the photospheric layer which is deeply rooted in the bottom of the convection zone. This rapid surface and subsurface rotation implies slower rotation of the tachocline. Slower dynamo rotation leads to reduction of the strength of the magnetic cycle. One of the very important sequences of the weak cycles, is the expected cooling of the Earths air and sea surface temperatures which would have negative effects on agriculture with increased drought-flood hazards. The reduction of solar UV flux can lead to the closure of the ozone hole on the long run.