Astrometric Research at the Yale University Observatory. Dr. Van Altena will continue a wide range of current and planned long term astrometric research based at Yale University. This award will provide some support for the reduction of data from the Southern Proper Motion Survey, but the principal objective is to support those operations that are closely related to the PI's facilities in New Haven, CT. Dr. Van Altena plans to produce a catalog of Right Ascensions and Declinations for faint stars seen from the Southern Hemisphere for use with large telescopes in determining positions of faint extra-galactic objects and positioning fiber optic probes for spectrographs. Work will continue on the determination of parallaxes of selected stars of astrophysical interest and on determination of reliable proper motion memberships in stellar clusters.
