An exceptional variability phase occurred in the peculiar F-type hypergiant ρ Cas (Ia+) when the V brightness dimmed by about a full magnitude between June and September 2000. The star recovered from this deep minimum by April 2001. It is the third outburst of ρ Cas on record in the last century. We detect the formation of TiO bands in high

We present a catalogue of previously unpublished optical and infrared photometry for a sample of 162 emission-line objects and shell stars visible from the southern hemisphere. The data were obtained between 1978 and 1997 in the Walraven (WULBV), Johnson/Cousins (UBV(RI)c) and ESO and SAAO near-infrared (JHKLM) photometric systems. Most of the

The effects of seeing on Sérsic r1/n profile parameters are extensively studied using a Moffat function. This analytical approximation to the point spread function (PSF) is shown to provide the best fit to the PSF predicted from atmospheric turbulence theory when β~4.765. The Moffat PSF is additionally shown to contain the Gaussian PSF as a

We obtained at the same time G-band images at the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) on La Palma and spectropolarimetric data in the near infrared at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) on Tenerife. The spectropolarimetric data show interesting correlations. Bright filaments have a smaller magnetic field s trength, and higher Evershed velocities occur

We present the photometric results of the Chandra Multiwavelength Plane Survey (ChaMPlane), which is a project to identify a large sample of serendipitous X-ray sources in the galactic plane, in order to determine the populations of accretion-powered binaries in the Galaxy. Deep Chandra field observations have sufficient sensitivity to reach

High-resolution observations suggest that quiescent solar prominences are made of small-scale fibrils stacked one after another in both the vertical and horizontal directions. These fibrils are interpreted as the cool, highermost part of much larger coronal loops which are rooted in the solar photosphere. On the other hand, there is some evidence