Science with the Hubble Space Telescope -- II
Book Editors: P. Benvenuti, F. D. Macchetto, and E. J. Schreier
Electronic Editor: H. Payne

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Preface

This volume contains the proceedings of the ``Science with the Hubble Space Telescope--II'' workshop, held in Paris, December 4--8, 1995. This was the first community-wide HST workshop held following the successful servicing mission of December 1993, and follows on the first ``Science with the Hubble Space Telescope'' workshop held in Sardinia in the summer of 1992. Despite the unforeseen logistical problems, attendance was very gratifying, with well over two hundred participants.

It is clear from the broad range of exciting results presented at the workshop that HST is meeting and exceeding the expectations of the astronomy community. It is equally clear from the dramatic images and extended coverage of HST astronomy carried in the world press that HST has won the attention of the public at large, and is, hopefully, providing educational benefits. We are especially glad that an education workshop could be held at the end of the meeting.

The great scientific results being obtained with HST emphasize the power of a long-lived observatory in space, and bring renewed anticipation of the further breakthroughs which can be expected with the advent of STIS and NICMOS with the 1997 servicing mission. We eagerly look forward to these instruments, to the Advanced Camera being readied for 1999, and to the promise of even more instruments being studied by ESA and by NASA for insertion in HST in the next millennium.

The scientific organizing committee consisted of Piero Benvenuti, Jacqueline Bergeron, Richard Ellis, Robert Fosbury, Heidi Hammel, Robert Kirshner, Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, Duccio Macchetto, George Miley, Vera Rubin, and Ethan Schreier. We are indebted to Evelyne Cheroux, Ilse Vollgraf, and Christina Stoffer who supported the local workshop activities and especially, as usual, to Britt Sjoeberg, who coordinated communications and support, and acted as a local organizing committee. Finally, we wish to thank Mary Brown, who labored incessantly to gather the manuscripts and produce these proceedings, and Harry Payne, without whose expertise and effort these proceedings would not be.

P. Benvenuti
F. D. Macchetto
E. J. Schreier

April 1996