Highlights of Astronomy

It is the customary practice to report the major events of a General Assembly -the Invited Discourses, Joint Discussions and Joint Commission Meetings in Highlights of Astronomy. Vol. 8 reports the highlights of the XXth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, 1988 August 2-11, Baltimore, USA. The present volume contains the 3 Invited Discourses and papers presented at 7 Joint Discussion Meetings and 6 Joint Commission Meetings. Two Joint Commission Meetings will be reported elsewhere -JCM5 Spectroscopy of Individual Stars in Globular Clusters and the Early Chemical Evolution of our Galaxy (in summary only here, published by the Imprimerie de l'Observatoire de Paris) and JCM7 Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds (see Transactions of the IAU, Vol.XXB, report of Commission 37). I am most grateful to the authors of the invited discourses R.M. West and V.I. Moroz, M. Schmidt and M. Rees for sending me the manuscripts so promptly. I am also indebted to the Chairmen of the Joint Discussion and Joint Commission Meetings for their organisation of the meetings and for the assembly of their material for publication. Unfortunately the deadline for receipt of manuscripts coincided with an extended postal strike in France which seriously hindered the preparation of the volume for publication.