In 2000 April a CONtinuous CAMera (CONCAM) was deployed on the roof of NASA's RMT building at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO). This CONCAM monitors the entire visible night sky above the horizon and sends back near live images that are immediately displayed at http://concam.net. Data is archived in both FITS and GIF formats. Stars as faint as visual magnitude 6 are visible near the image center. These images serve not only as a nearly continuous record of the night sky but as a cloud and air transparency monitor. Details of the CONCAM instrumentation are discussed as well as some preliminary analysis of CONCAM data.

A theoretical study, based on the non-local density approximation to the density functional theory was initiated, focusing on the structure, stability and vibrational properties of small ( monomer, tri-atomic, dimer and trimer ) clusters of AlN, GaN, and InN. A strong dominance of the nitrogen-nitrogen bond over the metal-nitrogen and metal-metal bonds appear to control the structural skeletons and the chemistry of these clusters. Results of monomer, tri-atomic and dimmer clusters were presented earlier. The most stable isomer of Al₂N₂ and Ga₂N₂ is a rhombus with a singlet spin state, though In₂N₂ is predicted to be not stable against dissociation into In₂ and N₂. For nitride trimers, a distinct structural difference is predicted between the most stable isomers of Al, and those of Ga and In. The increasing importance of the metal-metal bond in going from Al to Ga to In is observed and is attributed for the structural differences in these clusters. Analysis of the normal vibrational modes of the lowest energy isomers of timer clusters was performed in terms of those of the monomers (for Al₃N₃) or in terms of those of weakly bonded M₃ and N₃ subunits ( in the case of Ga₃N₃ and In₃N₃).