A collection of edited review articles from a workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute which united observational astronomers and theorists to examine the extragalactic background radiation at all wavelengths.

Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts, which has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969, is devoted to the recording, summarizing and indexing of astronomical publications throughout the world. It is prepared under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (according to a resolution adopted at the 14th General Assembly in 1970). Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documenta tion of literature in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Every effort will be made to ensure that the average time interval between the date of receipt of the original literature and publication of the abstracts will not exceed eight months. This time interval is near to that achieved by monthly abstracting journals, compared to which our system of accumu lating abstracts for about six months offers the advantage of greater convenience for the user. Volume 31 contains literature published in 1982 and received before July 15, 1982; some older literature which was received late and which is not recorded in earlier volumes is also included. We acknowledge with thanks contributions to this volume by Dr. J. Bouska, Prague, who surveyed journals and publications in Czech and supplied us with abstracts in English .

Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documen tation ofthe literatme concerning all aspects of astronomy, astrophysics, and their border fields. lt is devoted to the recording, summarizing, and indexing of the relevant publications throughout the world. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts is prepared by a special department of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union. Volume 40 records literatme published in 1985 and received before February 15, 1986. Some older documents which we received late and which arenot surveyed in earlier volumes are included too. We acknowledge with thanks contributions of our colleagues all over the world. We also express our gratitude to all organiza tions, observatories, and publishers which provide us with complimentary copies of their publications. Starting with Volume 33, all the recording, correction, and data processing work was dorre by means of computers. The recording was dorre by om technical staff members Ms. Helga Ballmann, Ms. Mona El-Choura (t), Ms. Monika Kohl, Ms. Sylvia Matyssek. Ms. Karirr Burkhardt, Ms. Susanne Schlötelbmg, Mr. Mar tin Schlötelburg, and Mr. Stefan Wagner supported om task by careful proof reading. lt is a pleasure to thank them all for their encomagement.

Proceedings of the 119th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Bangalore, India, December 2-6, 1985

The 1980's have been times of great excitement in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Professors Dennis Sciama and Fabio Mardirossian and all the other Members of the Organizing Committees are to be congratulated for having given us a taste of this excitement in Trieste, by inviting the leaders of the subject to the meeting they have organized. The excitement has corne from the new observations of the three-dimensional structure of the universe through a large number of new measurements of redshifts. These have revealed that clusters of galaxies are distributed on the surface of big empty bubbles of diameters of the order of 20-50 Mpc. Additionally, there is some evidence for invisible dark matter (whose composition is not known) as well as evidence for the gravitational lens effect. To cap this has corne the supernova of 1987, an event which last occurred 383 years ago. For the first time in history, the neutrino flux from the supernova was measured, giving limits to neutrino masses and numbers of neutrino types. (The dark matter problem is related to Particle Physics - beyond this standard model). It is good to be alive when all this happens and to try to comprehend this. Once again, our appreciation to the organisers and to those who presented their beautiful results.