REPORT FROM ISAS
                        24-Mar-94 to 12-Apr-94
                              L. W. Acton

Perils of prognostication and premature publication:  (a) Cherry
blossoms, predicted to reach their peak on April 1, came to full glory
about a week late--to the discomfiture of blossom festival organizers. 
(b) The tiny repeating x-ray bright points which I reported with glee
a few weeks back turned out to be "flashing dark spikes" in the CCD.  :-(

Today I had a pleasant surprise.  The scene, cafeteria of Aarn
Elementary School on Camp Zauma near ISAS--where Barry LaBonte's
children attend school.  As I was preparing to talk to the students
about science and astronaut stuff what should Barry notice on the
bulletin board behind me but the Lockheed SXT poster!  One of the
teachers had picked it up at the National Science Teacher's Conference
stateside. 

The past few weeks have been exhausting and exciting.  The visit by the
Harveys, Culhane, A.  Bhatnagar, and others provided the motivation to
work very hard on data analysis.  Karen Harvey made excellent progress
on furthering her work relating x-ray bright points, magnetograms and He
10830 images.  Jack stared for 3 weeks at SXT, magnetic field and He
10830 synoptic charts and discovered general patterns and relationships
which he and his collaborators will publish, hopefully this summer. 
Arvind Bhatnagar came armed with a list of H-alpha events observed at
Udaipur and discovered (or rediscovered) a remarkable x-ray eruption at
the east limb (14-Jan-1993 06:00-07:00) with amazingly twisted, sharply
defined, x-ray x-ray ropes or sheets.  What a bonus to have the H-alpha
data from Udaipur. 

In preparation for the Yohkoh mini-workshop on March 29 Culhane and I
worked until 2 a.m.  to derive the intensity scale height of the x-ray
corona about the south polar coronal hole from long exposure SXT full
resolution images.  We found the corona unexpectedly extended, to such a
degree that I am unwilling to put the corresponding hydrostatic
temperature in print.  Let us hope that this result does not go the way
of the tiny flashing x-ray bright points!

Finally, Akioka, Hudson and I have brought the analysis of the
22-April-92 eruptive flare to the point where I think even the most
skeptical would have to admit that it certainly LOOKS like a clear
example of magnetic reconnection.  Bonus--the temperature images
indicate the highest temperatures along the front of the fainter
erupting structure.  Have we observed direct shock heating at last??? So
much to do--so little time.  This is a great place to be a scientist. 

David Alexander has arrived and is learning to be SXT Chief Observer at
record speed.  The GOES plot has dropped to the A1 level a few times
recently--and still the x-ray pictures reveal a wealth of structure, 
detail, and dynamism.  What a great star we live near.