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Session 8 - Milky Way Structure.
Display session, Monday, June 10
Great Hall,

[8.03] Absolute Proper Motions of Southern Globular Clusters

D. I. Dinescu, T. M. Girard, W. F. van Altena (Yale Obs.)

Our program involves the determination of absolute proper motions with respect to galaxies for a sample of globular clusters situated in the southern sky. The plates cover a 6^\circ x 6^\circ area and are taken with the 51-cm double astrograph at Cesco Observatory in El Leoncito, Argentina. We have developed special methods to deal with the modelling error of the plate transformation and we correct for magnitude equation using the cluster stars. This careful astrometric treatment leads to accuracies of from 0.5 to 1.0 mas/yr for the absolute proper motion of each cluster, depending primarily on the number of measurable cluster stars which in turn is related to the cluster's distance. Space velocities are then derived which, in association with metallicities, provide key information for the formation scenario of the Galaxy, i.e. accretion and/or dissipational collapse. Here we present results for NGC 1851, NGC 6752, NGC 6584, NGC 6362 and NGC 288.

Program listing for Monday