Yoichi ITOH

The results of a spectroscopic survey of H alpha emission line stars associated with fourteen bright rimmed clouds are presented. Slit-less optical spectroscopy was carried out with the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) 2m telescope and IUCAA Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (IFOSC). H alpha emission line was detected from 173 objects. Among them 85 objects have a strong H alpha emission line with its equivalent width larger than 10 A. Those are classical T Tauri stars. 52 objects have a weak H alpha emission line with its equivalent width less than 10 A and do not show intrinsic near-infrared excess. Those are weak-line T Tauri stars. On the other hand, 36 objects have a weak H alpha emission line (<10 A), although they show intrinsic near-infrared excess. Such objects are not common in low-mass star forming regions. Those are misfits of the general concept on formation process of a low-mass star, in which it evolves from a classical T Tauri star to a weak-line T Tauri star. Those might be weak-line T Tauri stars with a flared disk in which gas is heated by ultraviolet radiation from a nearby early-type star. Alternatively, we propose pre-transitional disk objects as their evolutional stage.

As one of the educational dissemination activities of Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory, we have conducted astronomy practical training for high school and undergraduate students. We have conducted a questionnaire aiming at survey of satisfaction from the users and improvement of the quality since July 2015. In this paper, we surveyed the questionnaires from July 2015 to October 2018 and investigated to the satisfaction from the users for our training menu. The questionnaire was conducted for a total of 140 schools and organizations, and 89 responses wereobtained. The recovery rate was 64%. As a result, it was revealed that the majority of the users answered that they were satisfied with the content of the practical training. In addition, we found that the satisfaction level of "daytime observation of stars and sun", "astronomy lecture", "night observation practice" and the overall practice increased in recent years. On the other hand, we found that "tour of the observation with Nayuta" showed a downward trend in satisfaction and there is room for improvement. We also conducted a survey on the difficulty level of each practice menu. As a result, it was found that the answer choosing "proper" reached 86 % of the total number of responses. Considering the trend of the satisfaction from the users and the answer for the difficulty level, we concluded that our astronomy practice training at Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory is almost as expected by the user.