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This session opened with a crucial explanation by Michel Cotte of how astronomers first need to understand how to apply UNESCO World Heritage Criteria if they want to motivate their government(s) to make the case to UNESCO for World Heritage recognition. UNESCO World Heritage cannot be obtained just to protect dark skies.Much more detail of this and the other presentations in this session, along with many images, can be found at the session website: http://www.noao.edu/education/IAUGA2015FM21.The next speaker, John Hearnshaw, described the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve and the work it carries out . This was followed by a wide-ranging summary (by Dan Duriscoe and Nate Ament) of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) Night Skies Program. The abstract of Cipriano's Marin's paper, “Developing Starlight connections with UNESCO sites through the Biosphere Smart" was shown in his absence. The final presentation (by Arkadiusz Berlicki, S. Kolomanksi and T. Mrozek) discussed the bi-national Izera Dark Sky Park.

The AURA Observatory site in northern Chile, which includes Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachon, has been operational for over 50 years now, facing a variety of challenges to its long-term future. The site now hosts over 20 operational telescopes, ranging from small projects with 0.4m telescopes to the Blanco 4m, the SOAR 4.1m, and the 8m Gemini-South telescopes. In addition, we have recently begun the construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) on the summit of Cerro Pachon. We summarize our efforts over the past 20-30 years to highlight the importance of site protection through education and public outreach as well as through more recent promotion of IDA certifications in the region and support for the World Heritage initiatives described by others in this conference.

To address light pollution issues, IAU Commissions 41, 46, 50, and 55 are involved in getting the word out to the public and IAU members via cultural, educational, technical; however, efforts can always improve and evolve. To carry out a successful light pollution abatement program supported by the IAU, it takes a diversity of groups, professions, and disciplines with their collective knowledge and experience. In manifesting dark skies awareness effectively, we are stronger together than we are alone; therefore, combining efforts of Commissions 41, 46, 50 and 55 with organizations like the International Dark-Sky Association, Astronomers Without Borders, The World at Night and partnering with events like Earth Hour or GLOBE at Night is a good step forward.

The past President of Division XII, Malcolm Smith, took the chair of the business meeting of C50, in the absence of the past President of C50, Richard Wainscoat. He described the procedure of the election in 2006 of the then-time vice-president of C50, Richard Wainscoat, as President of C50, after the untimely deatch of the then-time C50 President, Hugo Schwarz. He also described the procedure for electing the incoming OC members and officers.

A basic-level summary is provided of work since late 1993 to control light pollution in Chile. The purpose of this article is to stimulate such work inside Chile and to promote good lighting in developing countries in general. Chile is selected as the case study because of its critical importance to optical and radio astronomy, and the related economic and cultural benefits for Chile and the world. Examples are presented in some detail in order to illustrate adjustments that have been made to accommodate local scientific, cultural and economic realities and to show that it is necessary to anticipate the issues involved in controlling light pollution several decades before it would otherwise become a problem. It is hoped that international organizations such as the IAU, the IDA and the CIE can soon promote programmes in Chile that can serve as pilot programmes for other parts of the developing world.

Brief report. The Extended Case Study for AURA-O as a “Window to the Universe” (http://www2.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=000059&idsub-entity=005) was prepared in the context of supporting the desire to preserve humanity's scientific/cultural heritage of outstanding, high-mountain, ground-based, observatory sites developed over the period 1870–2000.

Over the last two decades, La Serena's population has increased by about 70 percent. A site description of the AURA Observatory in Chile as a “Window to the Universe“ is now available on the recently-launched UNESCO-IAU Astronomical Heritage Web Portal, www.astronomicalheritage.net This can serve as an example of possible material for the Chilean authorities, should they wish to propose the dark skies over much of northern Chile for protection as a World Scientific Heritage site. Some of the steps involved are discussed briefly here.

PRESIDENT Malcolm G. SmithVICE-PRESIDENT Fran¸coise GenovaPAST PRESIDENT Johannes AndersenBOARD Steven R. Federman, Alan C. Gilmore,Il-Seong Nha, Raymond P. Norris,Ian E. Robson, Magda G. Stavinschi,Virginia L. Trimble, Richard J. Wainscoat,Lars Lindberg ChristensenDIVISION XII COMMISSIONSCommission 5 Documentation and Astronomical DataCommission 6 Astronomical TelegramsCommission 14 Atomic and Molecular DataCommission 41 History of AstronomyCommission 46 Astronomy Education and DevelopmentCommission 50 Protection of Existing and Potential ObservatorySitesCommission 55 Communicating Astronomy with the PublicINTER-DIVISION X-XII WORKING GROUPInter-Division X-XII WG Historic Radio AstronomyTRIENNIAL REPORT 2006-2009

Significant and specific progress has been made in protecting major astronomical sites during the last three years. A brief summary is given, along with references to some of the efforts by members of Commission 50 to control light pollution and radio-frequency interference.

For the purposes of the discussion of IAU follow up on Resolution B5, adopted at the GA in Rio de Janiero in 2009, reference is made here to the resolution itself and the background which led to its proposal and adoption by the IAU.

Brief meetings were held to confirm the elections of the incoming Division President, Francoise Genova and Vice President, Ray Norris along with the Organizing Committee which will consist of the incoming Presidents of the 7 Commissions (5,6,14,41,46,50 and 55) plus additional nominated members. The incoming Organizing Committee will thus consist of

Division XII consists of Commissions that formerly were organized under the Executive Committee, that concern astronomers across a wide range of scientific sub-disciplines and provide interactions with scientists in a wider community, including governmental organizations, outside the IAU.

Afin d’éviter la répétition du contenu de nombreuses revues récentes, cette contribution rapporte principalement les projets d’étude au-delà du groupe local, en cours de réalisation dans l’hémisphère Sud.La majeure partie de ce travail n’ayant commencée que récemment, les résultats sont préliminaires. Divers sujets sont traités: le groupe du Sculpteur (§ II), des groupes proches de l’hémisphère Sud et des galaxies de champ (§ III), ainsi que les distances des amas denses les plus proches de l’hémisphère Sud. D’autres travaux seront cités dans certaines revues de la conférence: (i) les études sur les nuages de Magellan, et d’autres objets du groupe local, (ii) les problèmes d’anisotropie de l’expansion de Hubble, (iii) les estimations des distances des objets quasi stellai-res.

The U.K. 1.2 metre Schmidt Telescope acquired its first full aperture objective prism in 1975. This was a very low dispersion prism (2400 Å/mm at 4300 Å) which has been found to be particularly useful in searching for faint QSO’s.

Nous avons étudié des quasars de grand décalage spectral avec deux nouvelles techniques: l’utilisation de plaques obtenues avec un prisme objectif de faible dispersion pour la découverte des quasars par la détection de Lα en émission, puis un tube vidicon SIT pour la spectrophotométrie des raies d’émission. Sur les 45 candidats observés jusqu’à présent, 24 ont des décalages spectraux compris entre 1.9 et 2.5 et 9 entre 2.5 et 3.1. Deux nouveaux quasars de magnitude 16 et de z~ 2.2 ont été découverts. Nous comparons la distribution des intensités et des largeurs des raies d’émission observées avec les modèles de photoionisation. Un des principaux résultats du programme du prisme objectif sera d’améliorer la détermination de la densité spatiale des quasars de z >2.5.

The use of natural spectral-form groups (Morgan, 1951) on low-dispersion slitless survey plates efficiently isolates rather pure samples of intrinsically interesting extragalactic objects (e.g. Smith, 1975, 1976; Smith, Aguirre and Zemelman 1976; MacAlpine, Smith and Lewis 1977a, b; MacAlpine, Lewis and Smith 1977, MacAlpine and Lewis 1978, Cooke et al. 1977, Hoag and Smith 1977, Sramek and Weedman 1978, Bohuski, Fairall and Weedman 1978, Osmer and Smith 1979). One of these groups (illustrated for various telescopes by Smith 1975, Hoag and Smith 1977, Bolton et al. 1977 and Smith 1978) has been found to include a very large set of high-redshift QSOs. Definition of the group (e.g. Smith 1976) rests on the direct detection of the QSO emission lines on the survey plates. Objects already selected from the group range in redshift from 0.32 (PKS 2227-399 - see also Peterson and Bolton 1978, Browne, Savage and Bolton 1976, Bolton et al. 1977) to 3.45 (Q2227-6-3928 - Smith et al. 1977, Osmer 1978a) and in apparent magnitude from 21 (Osmer 1977, Smith 1978) to 16 (including the apparently brightest high-redshift object known, Q1101-264). - Osmer and Smith 1976, Smith 1978, Carswell et al. 1979 and the most luminous object known, Q0420-388 -Osmer and Smith 1977b; Wright and Kleinmann 1978). 15 of the 21 objects known with confirmed redshifts z > 3 have been discovered this way.

The region of the Virgo cluster is the subject of an intensive quasar search, since quasars mill provide valuable probes of absorption due to galaxy haloes or the intracluster medium. It is also interesting to test the quasar-galaxy association in such a region of the nearest major cluster of galaxies. More than 200 quasar candidates were found in the Virgo cluster region using both slitless technique and machine search, 32 of them have been confirmed as quasars.