IAU Commission 20 Report from GA23

(Don Yeomans, April 3, 2000)

Officers:

President: Hans Rickman
Vice President: E.L.G. Bowell
Secretary: Giovanni Valsecchi

Four New Commission 20 Resolutions Passed at Kyoto General Assembly:

Support Observing Campaign for 1998 and 1999 Leonid Meteor Showers
Support restoration of IAU funding for Minor Planet Center (MPC)
Support continuation of Working Group on Near-Earth Objects

Acknowledge interim funding of MPC by NASA and initiate search for new funding sources.

Commission 20 Actions Taken During 1997 IAU General Assembly:

Up to three names of Discoverers may be given to a new comet
Small Body Nomenclature Committee (SBNC) will continue to discuss whether or not all comets must have unique names. Until this issue is resolved within the SBNC, only the names of short periodic comets (P < 200 years) will be unique.
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) and Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA) Consultative Group was established with the following membership and charter:

Membership:

E. Bowell (Chair)
M. Carpino
G. Hahn
B. Marsden
K. Muinonen
P. Pravec
V. Shor
J. Ticha
D. Yeomans

Charter of the MPC and ITA Consultative Group:

The goal of the Consultative Group is to assure the continuation Of appropriate services and data provided by the MPC and ITA to the user community.

Together with the MPC and ITA staff, the Consultative Group will work toward assuring funding for maintaining the smooth operations of the MPC and ITA.

For those policy or operational actions materially affecting the MPC or ITA user community, the Consultative Group will hold discussions to assure that the actions suggested by the MPC or ITA are well suited to the best interests of the user community.

The following Commission 20 Committees were disbanded:

Standing committee to oversee publication of photometric data for minor planets (duties to be adopted by MPC and ITA Consultative Group)
Standing Committee on the Origins of Minor Planet Names
Ad Hoc Comet Names Committee (duties to be assumed by SBNC)
Working Group on Occultations (considered inactive)
Satellite Nomenclature Liaison Committee

The following committees remain active:

Small Bodies Nomenclature Committee (now a Division 3 Committee)
Comm. 20 Working Group on Comets
Comm. 20 Working Group on Natural Satellites
MPC and ITA Consultative Group