This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on Shocks in Astrophysics held at UMIST, Manchester, England from January 9-12, 1995. The study of interstellar and circumstellar gas dynamics has a long and distinguished history in Manchester and has been almost entirely concentrated in the school founded by Franz Kahn in the Astronomy Department, University of Manchester. In January 1993, one of us (AR) was appointed to the faculty of the Astrophysics Group in the Department of Mathematics at UMIST and astrophysical gas dynam­ ics became a major interest of the Group. The subject of this conference was chosen partly for the topicality of the subject matter and partly to help synthesise this expertise with the expertise in interstellar chemistry already present in the Group. The first fruits of this synthesis are contained in this volume. As it happened, this conference celebrated, not so much the beginnings of a long and fruitful collabo­ ration, but rather gave many of Alex's friends the chance to say a fond farewell as he departed UMIST at the end of January 1995 to take up a chair at UNAM, Mexico City. The core of this volume consists of twelve review articles, marked (R) in the list of contents, incorporating observational and theoretical studies of shock waves in a variety of situations from Herbig-Haro objects to Supernova Remnants to Active Galactic Nuclei. We have also included the contributed (C) and poster (P) papers.

Table of Contents:
Circumstellar Shocks (R).- The Observational Study of Herbig-Haro Shock Waves (R).- IR Observations of Shock Waves in the Interstellar Medium (R).- Observations of Shocked H2 and [FEII] Line Profiles in Orion Bullet Wakes (C).- H2 Fluorescence in HH7 and DR21 (C).- Shocks in the L1551–IRS5 Outflow Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging (P).- Proper Motion Measurements in Various Young Stellar Object Jets in Taurus (P).- Near-Infrared Imaging in H2 of Molecular (CO) Outflows from Young Stars (P).- NIR Spectroscopy and Molecular Shocks in Herbig-Haro 1 (P).- H2 in Molecular Shocks: Observations from 2 to 12 Microns (P).- Shocked Molecular Hydrogen in the LkHa 234 Region (P).- Smoke Rings around Supernova 1987A (P).- Models of Molecular Outflows (R).- Multifluid Models of Shocks in Magnetized Interstellar Molecular Clouds (R).- Grain Destruction in Interstellar Shock Waves (R).- The Importance of Chemical Data for the Study of Interstellar Shocks (R).- Molecular Mixing Layers in Stellar Outflows (C).- Shock Focusing and Jet Collimation in Young Stars (O).- Disintegration of Dust Aggregates in Interstellar Shocks and the Lifetime of Dust Grains in the ISM (P).- Molecular Diagnostics of Diffusive Boundary Layers (P).- HH30: The Interaction of a Herbig-Haro Jet with a Stratified Medium? (P).- Low Velocity Shock-Cloud Encounters I. Two Dimensional Hydrodynamical Model (P).- Low Velocity Shock-Cloud Encounters II. Observations and Interpretation (P).- Shocks of High Velocity Clouds and the Galactic Disk: 3D Numerical Simulations (P).- Non-Thermal Excitation of H2 in Molecular Clouds (P).- Phase Transitions in the ISM — A Source of Dissipative Behaviour (P).- All’s Knot Quiet on the Recombination Front (P).- Flows and Shocks in Active Galaxies and Their Nuclei (R).-Photoionising Shocks in SNRs and AGN (R).- Diagnostics of Supernova Remnant Shock Waves (R).- Shock Instabilities (R).- Particle Acceleration in Shocks (R).- Composite Models (Shock and Photoionisation) for the Interpretation of AGN Spectra (C).- MHD Simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Young Supernova Remnants (C).- A Distribution Function Calculation of the Ha Profiles of SNR Filaments (C).- Supernova Remnants in the Starburst Galaxy M82 (C).- Self-Consistent Theory of White Dwarf Burning in Supernova la Events (C).- Shocks and Shells in Hot Star Winds (C).- Simulations of the Wardle Instability of C-Type Shock Waves (P).- A Numerical Method for Particle Acceleration in Shocks (P).- The Deflection of Jets by Clouds (P).- Interacting Winds in Classical Nova Outbursts (P).- The Location and X-Ray Emission of Shocks around Isolated Be Stars (P).- Bipolar Outflows from Stars and Galaxies as a Tornado Phenomenon (P).