On the occasion of the retirement of Ulrich Schwarz, a symposium was held in Groningen in May of 1996, celebrating his contributions to the study of the int- stellar medium, including his work on the high-velocity clouds. The coming together of many specialists in the latter ?eld prompted the idea of compiling a book c- taining their contributions, and summarizing the status of our understanding of the high-velocity cloud phenomenon. This seemed especially worthwhile at the time, since many exciting developments were taking place. After the discovery of some H i clouds with high velocities, about 40 years ago, the subject had been dominated by 21-cm observations of H i emission. Starting in the mid-1980s much progress was being made because of the availability of new instruments, such as large ground-based optical telescopes and UV observatories in space. The connections between the work on high-velocity clouds and other studies of the properties of the (hot) interstellar medium also became clearer.

Rookie Readers RM have provided entertaining, high-quality introductions to reading for more than a generation. Each title features full-color, often hilarious illustrations and engaging stories that always involve a young child figuring out concepts or solving problems on his or her own. Every new title contains a Word List and a color-coded reading-level key on the back cover.

Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts, which has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969, is devoted to the recording, summarizing and indexing of astronomical publications throughout the world. According to a resolution adopted at the 14th General Assembly in 1970 it is prepared under the aus pices of the International Astronomical Union. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive doc umentation in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. It is due to the ever lasting increase of the bulk of material that the information content of our regular volumes is growing seriously. Therefore, the need for detailed index informations allowing the performance of retrospective literature searches be comes more and more important. Volume 23/24-the second General Index of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts - contains author and subject indexes to volumes II -14 and, respectively, 17-22. Thus, the astronomical and astrophysical literature of the whole five-year period 197 4 -1978 is cov ered by this volume. It is a pleasure to express our gratitude to Ms. Helga Ballmann, Ms. Monika Betz, Mr. Gernot Burkhardt, Ms. Lore Kiefert, Ms. Dagmar Roeder, Ms. Dimitra Roussou, and Mr. Werner Sanns for their kind support during the detailed preparation steps of the indexes.

Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts, which has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969, is devoted to the recording, summarizing and indexing of astronomical publications through out the world. It is prepared under the auspices of the Interna tional Astronomical Union (according to a resolution adopted at the 14th General Assembly in 1970). Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a com prehensive documentation of literature in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Volume 15/16 contains author and subject indexes of volumes 1 - 10, covering the literature from 1969 to 1973. It is a pleasure to express our warmest thanks to Miss Helga Ballmann, Mrs. Monika Betz, Dr. Siegfried B6hme, Mrs. Karola Gud6, Miss Lore Kiefert, and Mrs. Ingrid Wolf for their kind support in the preparation of the indexes. Heidelberg, June 1976 Ute Esser Inge Heinrich Frieda Henn Dietlinde Krahn Hans Scholl Gert Zech v Introduction The Author Index contains 110 180 references to publications initial letter following the first names. of 28654 different authors. The Subject Index contains 38145 An effort has been made to cite Russian names according to references to 7170 different key words. the following transliteration: The main characteristics of the concept of Astronomy and r Astrophysics Abstracts, Author and Subject Indexes may be A a P p a summarized briefly.

Galactic and Extragalactic Radio Astronomy is a fundamental text for graduate students and professional astronomers and covers all aspects of radio astronomy beyond the solar system. Each chapter is written by a renowned expert in the field and contains a review of a particular area of radio astronomy and presents the latest observations and interpretations as well as an extensive view of the literature (as of 1988). Topics covered include: galactic continuum emission, HII regions, the diffuse interstellar medium, interstellar molecules, astronomical masers, neutral hydrogen, the galactic center, radio stars, supernova remnants, pulsars, extragalactic hydrogen, radio galaxies and quasars, the microwave background, and cosmological radio sources.

The space between the stars contains a large diversity of objects in which physical processes occur that are fundamental to the structure and evolution of galaxies. This book offers the reader a basic knowledge of these processes and presents simple numeric estimates of the main quantities relevant to the interstellar medium. The main objects that constitute the interstellar space are described, but the emphasis of the book lies in the physical processes occurring in these objects, which may also occur in other astrophysical environments. The book is directed tor graduate as well as advanced undergraduate students of physics and astrophysics.

TheinternationalconferenceHowdoestheGalaxywork? Agalactictertulia rd th with Don Cox and Ron Reynolds, was held during the week of 23 to 27 of June 2003 in the marvelous city of Granada, Spain. This week marked the beginningofoneofthehottestsummersthatwehaveeverlived, butincontrast, the meeting was one of the coolest events that we can remember! First, it certainly wasa?rstclassscienti?creunion, withanexcellent program, talented speakers, and alive discussions in a friendly atmosphere. Second, the whole event was embedded in the passionate Andalucian way of life, a true tertulia, well seasoned with tasty tapas and perfectly marinated in cool and dry sherry wine. Third, the celebration was framed by some of the most beautiful settings thatonecanimagine; weenjoyedthemagni?centsplendoroftheAlhambra,the unique Muslim-Jewish-Christian ?avor of the Albaicin, and the magical gipsy heartbeat of Sacromonte. Last but not least, all discussions, whether they were duringthesessionsoratabartable,weresprinkledwiththecharmandwitofthe twoguestsofhonor: DonCoxandRonReynolds. Theideaofhavingascienti?c feast to celebrate their 60th birthday in Granada was actually conceived at a bar table in Seville, with plenty of manzanilla at hand, a couple of summers ago. That, perhaps, was the dif?cult part of the project. The rest was relatively easy to achieve because Don and Ron are not only remarkable astronomers but they are also great human beings. Indeed, we had a very positive response from all parties involved: every person we talked to was enthusiastic about the celebration, and wanted to give their own point of view in this tertulia.

Knowledge about the outer heliosphere and the interstellar medium, which were long treated as two separate fields, has improved dramatically over the past 25 years as a consequence of recent developments: The discovery of interstellar pickup ions and neutral helium inside the heliosphere, the determination of the interstellar hydrogen distribution in the heliosphere obtained using backscattered solar Lyman-alpha radiation, the prediction and subsequent detection of the hydrogen wall just outside of the heliopause, the development of detailed global models for the interaction of solar wind plasma with the interstellar medium, and most recently, direct in-situ plasma and field measurements inside of the heliosheath. At the same time, our understanding of the nearby galactic environment, including the composition and dynamics of the warm gas clouds and hot gas in the local bubble, has benefited greatly from absorption-line spectroscopy using nearby stars as background sources and dynamic modeling. The present volume provides a synopsis of these developments organised into seven sections: Dominant physical processes in the termination shock and heliosheath, three-dimensional shape and structure of the dynamic heliosphere, relation of the plasmas and dust inside and outside of the heliosphere, origin and properties of the very local interstellar medium, energy and pressure equilibria in the local bubble, physical processes in the multiphase interstellar medium inside of the local bubble, and the roles that magnetic fields play in the outer heliosphere and the local bubble. The last theme is probably the most basic of all as magnetic fields play important roles in most of the phenomena discussed here. The volume concludes with four papers providing the "big picture" by looking at the time evolution of both the heliosphere and the local bubble, looking beyond the local bubble, and finally addressing the challenges in modeling the interface between the two media.