We present results from multi-band near-IR (J, H, and K) imaging of twelve BL Lac objects (z=0.055 to 0.774 for the 11/12 with well-determined redshifts) obtained with the du Pont 2.5m f/7.5 telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory. These AGN are a subset of the much larger BL Lac sample surveyed with HST, mostly in the R band. All twelve BL Lacs

We present R-band observations of the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey gravitational lens system B1152+199, obtained with the active optics system at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. Owing to the very good spatial resolution of the images (0.6"), the optical counterpart of the two quasar components and the lens galaxy have been clearly identified

We present the discovery of substellar-mass companions to three stars by the ongoing Penn State-Toruń Planet Search conducted with the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The K2-dwarf, BD+14 4559, has a 1.5 MJ minimum mass companion with the orbital period of 269 days and shows a non-linear, long-term radial velocity (RV) trend, which indicates a

The measurement of coronal fields has in the past generally been restricted to the field strength or to only some of the components of the magnetic vector. We present here a technique for measuring the full magnetic vector near the base of the solar corona. As an application we report on observations of a developing active region with ongoing

Recent results from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have resolved starbursts as collections of small young stellar clusters. We have elaborated tep{Melo04} a photometric catalogue of the young stellar clusters in the nuclear starburst of M82, observed with the HST WFPC2 in Hα (F656N) and continuum images. We identify 198 young super stellar clusters

Super star clusters (M ecl > 105 M sun) are the largest stellar nurseries in our local Universe, containing hundreds of thousands to millions of young stars within a few light years. Many of these systems are found in external galaxies, especially in pairs of interacting galaxies, and in some dwarf galaxies, but relatively few in disk galaxies like