Over 100 trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions for masers associated with young, high-mass stars have been measured with the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy Survey, a Very Long Basline Array key science project, the European VLBI Network, and the Japanese VERA project. These measurements provide strong evidence for the existence of spiral arms in the Milky Way, accurately locating many arm segments and yielding spiral pitch angles ranging from about 7 • to 20 • . The widths of spiral arms increase with distance from the Galactic center. Fitting axially symmetric models of the Milky Way with the 3-dimensional position and velocity information and conservative priors for the solar and average source peculiar motions, we estimate the distance to the Galactic center, R 0 , to be 8.34 ± 0.16 kpc, a circular rotation speed at the Sun, Θ 0 , to be 240 ± 8 km s −1 , and a rotation curve that is nearly flat (i.e., a slope of −0.2 ± 0.4 km s −1 kpc −1 )

We are using the Very Long Baseline Array and the Japanese VLBI Exploration of Radio Astronomy project to measure trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions of masers found in high-mass star-forming regions across the Milky Way. Early results from 18 sources locate several spiral arms. The Perseus spiral arm has a pitch angle of 16 • ± 3 • , which favors four rather than two spiral arms for the Galaxy. Combining positions, distances, proper motions, and radial velocities yields complete 3-dimensional kinematic information. We find that star forming regions on average are orbiting the Galaxy ≈ 15 km s −1 slower than expected for circular orbits. By fitting the measurements to a model of the Galaxy, we estimate the distance to the Galactic center R 0 = 8.4 ± 0.6 kpc and a circular rotation speed Θ 0 = 254 ± 16 km s −1 . The ratio Θ 0 /R 0 can be determined to higher accuracy than either parameter individually, and we find it -2to be 30.3 ± 0.9 km s −1 kpc −1 , in good agreement with the angular rotation rate determined from the proper motion of Sgr A*. The data favor a rotation curve for the Galaxy that is nearly flat or slightly rising with Galactocentric distance. Kinematic distances are generally too large, sometimes by factors greater than two; they can be brought into better agreement with the trigonometric parallaxes by increasing Θ 0 /R 0 from the IAU recommended value of 25.9 km s −1 kpc −1 to a value near 30 km s −1 kpc −1 . We offer a "revised" prescription for calculating kinematic distances and their uncertainties, as well as a new approach for defining Galactic coordinates. Finally, our estimates of Θ 0 and Θ 0 /R 0 , when coupled with direct estimates of R 0 , provide evidence that the rotation curve of the Milky Way is similar to that of the Andromeda galaxy, suggesting that the dark matter halos of these two dominant Local Group galaxy are comparably massive.

We report phase-referencing VLBA observations of H 2 O masers near the starforming region W3(OH) to measure their parallax and absolute proper motions. The measured annual parallax is 0.489 ± 0.017 milli-arcseconds (2.04 ± 0.07 kpc), where the error is dominated by a systematic atmospheric contribution. This distance is consistent with photometric distances from previous observations and with the distance determined from CH 3 OH maser astrometry presented in a related paper. We also find that the source driving the H 2 O outflow, the "TW-object", moves with a 3-dimensional velocity of > 7 km s −1 relative to the ultracompact H II region W3(OH).

Astrometric Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of maser sources in the Milky Way are used to map the spiral structure of our Galaxy and to determine fundamental parameters such as the rotation velocity (Θ0) and curve and the distance to the Galactic center (R0). Here, we present an update on our first results, implementing a recent change in the knowledge about the Solar motion. It seems unavoidable that the IAU recommended values for R0 and Θ0 need a substantial revision. In particular the combination of 8.5 kpc and 220 km s −1 can be ruled out with high confidence. Combining the maser data with the distance to the Galactic center from stellar orbits and the proper motion of Sgr A* gives best values of R0 = 8.3 ± 0.23 kpc and Θ0 = 239 or 246 ± 7 km s −1 , for Solar motions of V = 12.23 and 5.25 km s −1 , respectively. Finally, we give an outlook to future observations in the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy (BeSSeL) Survey.

We present the results of a high sensitivity survey for 6.7 GHz methanol masers towards 22 GHz water masers using the 100 m Efflesberg telescope. A total of 89 sources were observed and 10 new methanol masers were detected. The new detections are relatively faint with peak flux densities of between 0.5 and 4.0 Jy. A nil detection rate from low-mass star forming regions enhances the conclusion that the masers are only associated with massive star formation. Even the faintest methanol maser in our survey, with a luminosity of 1.1 × 10 −9 L , is associated with massive stars, as inferred from its infrared luminosity.

We report trigonometric parallaxes and proper motions of water masers for 12 massive star forming regions in the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way as part of the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy (BeSSeL) Survey. Combining our results with 14 parallax measurements in the literature, we estimate a pitch angle of 9 • .9 ± 1 • .5 for a section of the Perseus arm. The 3-dimensional Galactic peculiar motions of these sources indicate that on average they are moving toward the Galactic center and slower than the Galactic rotation.

Abstract. Using the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), we have observed water maser emission in the proto-planetary nebula candidate IRAS 19134+2131, in which the water maser spectrum has two groups of emission features separated in radial velocity by ∼100 km s −1 . The blue-shifted and red-shifted clusters of maser features are clearly separated spatially by ∼150 mas, indicative of a fast collimated flow. However, not all of the maser features are aligned along the axis of the flow, as is seen in the similar high-velocity water maser source, W43A. Comparing the VLA and VLBA maps of the water maser source, we find 4 maser features that were active for 2 years. Using only VLBA data, we identified proper motions for 8 maser features. The full 3D outflow velocity is estimated to be ∼130 km s −1 , indicating that the dynamical age of the flow is only ∼50 yr. On the basis of the relative positions with respect to the nearby extragalactic reference source, J1925+2106, we also obtain a secular motion of IRAS 19134+2131 of µ l = −4.6 ± 0.7 mas yr −1 along the Galactic plane toward the Galactic centre. This indicates a "far distance" (≥16 kpc) for IRAS 19134+2131 if the Galactic rotation curve remains flat at 220 km s −1 .

We have conducted VLBA phase-referencing monitoring of H 2 O masers around the red supergiant, S Persei, for six years. We have fitted maser motions to a simple expanding-shell model with a common annual parallax and stellar proper motion, and obtained the annual parallax as 0.413±0.017 mas, and the stellar proper motion as (−0.49±0.23 mas yr −1 , −1.19±0.20 mas yr −1 ) in right ascension and declination, respectively. The obtained annual parallax corresponds to the trigonometric distance of 2.42 +0.11 −0.09 kpc. Assuming the Galactocentric distance of the Sun of 8.5 kpc, the circular rotational velocity of the LSR at the distance of the Sun of 220 km s −1 , and a flat Galactic rotation curve, S Persei is suggested to have a non-circular motion deviating from the Galactic circular rotation for 15 km s −1 , which is mainly dominated by the anti rotation direction component of 12.9 ± 2.9 km s −1 . This red supergiant is thought to belong to the OB association, Per OB1, so that this non-circular motion is representative of a motion of the OB association in the Milky Way. This non-circular motion is somewhat larger than that explained by the standard density-wave theory for a spiral galaxy, and is attributed to either a cluster shuffling of the OB association, or to non-linear interactions between non-stationary spiral arms and multi-phase interstellar media. The latter comes from a new view of a spiral arm formation in the Milky Way suggested by recent large N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics numerical simulations.