Editorial - Volume 26 Number 2 (July 1999)

On the historical side, the 19th century Breen family of Armagh has been researched. It throws more light on the important part that some of the lesser-known astronomers and employees played in Victorian astronomy. Very little was previously known about the personal life of this interesting family. In the feature section we return to Mars for its other half (see IAJ, 1999, 26(1), 45). Recent image releases from the Mars Orbiter Camera (up to June 1999) are available to all on the Internet but those readers without time or opportunity to browse might enjoy our tour through the eastern hemisphere. We are quite happy, ourselves, to be able to now browse through these pictures without that confounded monitor screen, and all those disconnections from servers.

The Editors learnt with great sadness of the passing of Sir William Hunter McCrea in his ninety-fifth year. `Bill' was known to most of us in Ireland and he will be sorely missed by all his friends in Ireland. We have asked his closest student-friend, Derek McNally, to speak on our behalf to our readers. The Irish Astronomical Journal, Editors and readers, will remember Bill not only for his support of Irish astronomy but for his unbounded kindness and most generous wisdom. Our deepest condolences go to the family.

We are very fortunate to now have the services of Steve Andrews as Technical Editor. Steve has set up new computer systems for the Irish Astronomical Journal and opened up our Internet facilities at Dore. Steve's background is electronic engineering (Newcastle University) and oil exploration seismology (Geko Prakla). Apart from his usual Editorial duties, Alastair Gunn (Jodrell Bank), who has moved on to Managing Editor, is responsible for tying together the Journal at the difficult final stages. From the many contributions from the Astronomy and Science Group of Ireland (ASGI) in the latest issues it looks like the future of the Journal is more secure than it has ever been. We are not sitting on our laurels though since we are all too aware how some scientific publications are swept away by the tidal wave of progress. The work load for the Editors is rather large, the reward being purely the satisfaction of producing a useful and enjoyable scientific journal and providing an international medium for Irish researchers, science historians and science writers. There is no continent which does not subscribe to the IAJ, and few major countries or astronomical institutions which are not amongst our subscribers. However, it would be good for the IAJ to increase its circulation to survive the coming years, and more importantly to recruit more assistance from Irish astronomers at home and abroad. It is always surprising to us that Irish astronomers rarely become subscribers, themselves! Those astronomers abroad with an Irish connection might spread the news! Financially, we are forced next year to slightly increase our subscriptions to allay rising costs of printing and postage alone. New bank charges are causing considerable concern. We recently were told by our bank that the bank charge for handling US dollars from Canada were very high, and we were even advised that a dollar cheque for under US$ from an Indian bank in the US was virtually valueless. We shall meet again in the new millennium!

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