Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) has two fully steerable Cassegrean System 32 and 16 m radio telescopes. After renovation and modernization program the Galactic masers, particularly CH3OH research and monitoring program became one of the most important realized on these telescopes. Both telescopes are equipped with broadband cryogenic receivers covering 4.5-8.8 GHz frequency band. Digital backend consisting from DBBC-2 (Digital Base Band Convertor developed by HAT-LAB, Italy) and FLEXBUFF (data storage system based on commercially available server system) is used for data digitalization and registration. A special program complex for spectral line data reduction and correction was developed and implemented.

We present estimates of brightness temperature for 5 galactic masers in star-forming regions detected at space baselines. Very compact features with angular sizes of ~23-60 μas were detected in these regions with corresponding linear sizes of ~4-10×106 km. Brightness temperatures range from 1014 up to 1016 K.

In the past few years, we have performed a 22 GHz H2O maser survey towards hundreds of BGPS sources using the 25-meter Nanshan Radio Telescope (NSRT) of the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, and detected more than one hundred masers. Our aim is to study star formation activities associated with these sources, as well as search for any correlations that may exist between 22 GHz H2O masers and the evolutionary stage of high-mass star formation regions. The NSRT has been upgraded and have now an effective diameter of 26 meter. Besides, cryogenically cooled dual-beam receiver systems covering seven millimeter-wave observing bands have been installed on the NSRT. For the next step of maser observation, we will continue to do H2O and SiO masers survey of massive dust clumps and monitor some maser sources.

IAU Symposium 336, Astrophysical Masers: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, took place between 4 - 8 September, 2017 in Cagliari, on the beautiful island of Sardinia. The Symposium, the fifth focusing on masers as a tool for astrophysics, was dedicated to our friend and colleague Malcolm Walmsley, who sadly passed away shortly before the meeting. To quote Karl Menten: “Malcolm made numerous fundamental contributions to our understanding of the physics and chemistry of star formation and the interstellar medium. He was an exceptional scientist, a highly esteemed colleague and a true gentleman”. Vale Malcolm. The topics discussed at the symposium covered a huge range, from star-formation, evolved stars, galaxies and their constituents, super-massive black-holes to cosmology.