The Future of Observational Stellar Atmospheres

Abstract

The title of this talk is, of course, a bit absurd since no one in his right mind can possibly predict what will happen in the future over even one year let alone ten. However nothing is impossible for Dick Thomas and having accepted his invitation to present this talk I have to pretend to have a crystal ball and put up a good front. I think that the best way to proceed would be to look at the past few years in observational stellar atmospheres and point out some of the highlights, especially those advances which seem to hold great promise for our understanding of stellar atmospheres in the future. The observer’s work falls neatly into two categories: the collection of data and their subsequent interpretation. The former involves the development and use of instrumentation (usually some type of spectrograph with a photon detection system); the latter is so closely linked to theory that it would be impossible to discuss it without recourse to theoretical assumptions and results. Therefore I would like to first mention a few instrumental developments which I consider to be of great importance and then discuss briefly some of the problems to which they might be applied in the next several years.