The JKT was employed in imaging the impacts through six narrow-band filters sampling the continuum and methane absorption bands. The sequence of events that emerges from the data is as follows. The fireball is first glimpsed 328 seconds after impact when it is still 2° beyond the limb, on the far side of Jupiter. As it comes to the horizon after 553 seconds it achieves maximum brightness but no emision lines are yet visible. By 600 seconds the fireball is fading and sodium is brightening, reaching its maximum after 848 seconds, after which it rapidly fades. In the meantime magnesium and calcium brighten and fade more slowly. A simple model is that the fireball is at first optically thick. As it expands and cools it becomes optically thin and the emission lines are seen.
 

With this in mind, researchers set out to investigate the reflectance properties of 19 D-type asteroids using the WHT Faint Object Spectrograph. Two asteroids, 102 Miriam and 914 Palisana, exhibited strong UV absorption, characterisitc of phyllosilicates, indicating that they are in fact more correctly classified as C-types. The colours of the remainder were quantified by the slopes of their reflectance spectra. A previously reported heliocentric colour gradient within the D-types was not confirmed, but is not ruled out by the new data. A reflectance-slope diameter correlation for D-types is confirmed in the sense that the smaller asteroids tend to be redder. It is possible that the redder objects are made of intrinsically weaker material and are less resistant to break-up by impacts. Although the D-type asteroids observed have very similar albedos (0.037 ± 0.007) to cometary nuclei, they possess a less diverse range of reflectance properties than cometary nuclei and are better defined as a group by their surfaces. Cometary nuclei cannot therefore be regarded as the spectral analogues of D-type asteroids in general, though the D-types are spectrally similar to some comets. If there is an evolutionary link, this could be explained if the surface compositions have altered over their lifetimes.
 

The La Palma observations provided excellent pre- and post-maximal optical coverage of SN1994D, demonstrating that it was a classic type Ia supernova, believed to be caused by thermonuclear fusion of carbon and oxygen in a white dwarf in a binary system. The data included the first ever pre-maximum light coverage of a normal type Ia in the 8500 to 10000Å range. The earliest spectra provided a goldmine of information about the outer layers of the explosion, and possibly about the progenitor system as well. 

A type Ic supernova such as 1994I is a core-collapse event characterised by absent or weak hydrogen lines without the strong helium lines of a type Ib. It may have been a progenitor in a close binary system which has lost both its hydrogen and helium rich envelopes before collapse. To improve understanding of these events, good spectral coverage is required, and it is hoped to continue monitoring into 1995. 

Features in the spectra of the very peculiar type II supernova SN1994W appear to have come from two regions: broad hydrogen and helium emission from the rapidly moving ejecta, and narrow P Cygni features from a slow moving dense circumstellar wind, ionised by the EUV flash and now scattering part of the subsequently emitted optical light.
 

Researchers measured stellar line-of-sight velocity profiles of these galaxies from high resolution, high signal-to-noise, long-slit spectroscopy using both ISIS on the WHT and the Multiple Mirror Telescope on Mount Hopkins. In all objects, significant deviations of the velocity profiles from Gaussian were found which are not accounted for by projection or seeing effects. The strongest deviations are asymmetries, primarily along the major axis, which indicate an excess of stars at low rotation velocities.

These velocity profiles rule out certain existing dynamical models. A new model for M32 has been constructed taking proper account of the new data, consistent with the central luminosity 'spike' being completely non-thermal. The observed velocity distributions near the centre can be fitted equally well by radially anisotropic models with a central black hole of mass no more than about 5 x 10⁹ solar masses.
 

A search for high redshift radio galaxies was conducted by a consortium of researchers, who selected objects at a frequency of 38 MHz with unusual radio spectra: some had steep, straight spectra and some had highly curved spectra that flattened or turned over at low frequency. VLA maps of the selected candidates provided positions that were sufficiently accurate for optical spectroscopy without further imaging, and follow-up spectra were obtained with ISIS on the WHT. One candidate, 8C1435+635, showed a resolved, spatially extended emission line centered on 639.0 nm with several components with velocities between -1500 and +700 kms^-1. A further line object was detected at 820.5nm. Identifying these with lyman alpha and C IV yields a (Ly alpha) redshift of z=4.255, the most distant galaxy known. The radio luminosity, even allowing for possible gravitational amplification, places it at the very top of the radio luminosity function, suggesting that the evolution of radio-loud AGN at high redshift may be similar to the radio-quiet quasars.
 

Astronomers investigated the faint end of the luminosity function directly at moderate z (=0.2) using deep R-band observations of the Abell distant cluster A963 made with the Hitch-hiker parallel CCD camera on the WHT. By subtracting a mean-field component from the observed galaxy counts in the cluster area, they deduced the existence of a large drawf population in the cluster, giving rise to a significant excess over the mean down to the sample limit at m_R=24.5. The implied dwarf galaxy luminosity function has a steep slope, alpha=-1.8.
 

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS 

The Crab nebula, the remnant of the supernova of 1054 and thought to have been a type II supernova, has been shown to have a diffuse halo out to about 2 arcminutes beyond the edge of the nebula. The mass of this halo has proven to be about 4 solar masses, and when added to the 4 solar masses already visible gives a progenitor mass of 8 solar masses. Theories about Type II supernovae say that the progenitors must have at least a mass of 8 solar masses to explode, and the Crab is now in agreement with this. (Murdin, 1994, MNRAS, 269, 89).

The first determination of a distance to a High Velocity Cloud (HVC) has been made using WHT and JKT spectroscopy. These techniques have been used by other researchers to study a number of halo and disk HVC's using the INT. (Little et al, 1994, ApJ, 427, 267; Shaw et al, 1994, Spectrum, No.3, 8; Centurión et al, 1994, Aston Astrophys, 292, 261.

New white dwarfs have been found using the INT and JKT doing optical follow-ups on ROSAT and EUV surveys. One of these objects was the hottest hydrogen-rich DA white dwarf detected. (Barstow et al, 1994, MNRAS, 271, 175). Also found in the same follow-ups was a new AM Her system, which has the shortest period known for this type of object. (Osborne et al, 1994, MNRAS, 270, 650).