We present observations of a statistically-significant number of Jupiter-family cometary nuclei as part of SEPPCoN (Survey of the Ensemble Physical Properties of Cometary Nuclei). We present preliminary results on distributions of albedos and shapes.

TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and short orbital period are atypical among binary systems with solar-like (T eff

We study the magnetic field and the umbral intensity of sunspots for the period 1999 to 2011. We analyze full Stokes spectra of 183 spots observed with the Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. We derive the magnetic field strength in the umbra from the Zeeman splitting of a near-infrared spectral line

Aims: We study the variation in the magnetic field strength and the umbral intensity of sunspots during the declining phase of the solar cycle No. 23 and in the beginning of cycle No. 24. Methods: We analyze a sample of 183 sunspots observed from 1999 until 2011 with the Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter (TIP) at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT)

We investigate the variable star content of the isolated, Local Group, dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy Cetus. Multi-epoch, wide-field images collected with the Very Large Telescope/Visible Multiobject Spectrograph camera allowed us to detect 638 variable stars (630 RR Lyrae stars and eight anomalous Cepheids), 475 of which are new detections. We

Ultracool dwarfs with spectral type M7 and later include very low-mass stars as well as brown dwarfs. Due to their intrinsic faintness, only 9 very low-mass dwarfs are actually being monitored by the Kepler mission. We present light curves for some of these dwarfs that show rotational modulation due to cool spots on the surface and flare outbursts