Invited Review of the book: Foudations of New World Cultural Astronomy : a Reader with Commentary edited by a. Aveni (Univeristy Press of Colorado, boulder, 2008)

Current projects for large telescopes demand a proper knowledge of atmospheric turbulence to design efficient adaptive optics systems in order to reach large Strehl ratios. However, the proper characterization of the turbulence above a particular site requires long-term monitoring. Because of the lack of long-term information on turbulence, high

Spectra in the wavelength range 4230-9150 Å and the first light curves of Z Vul in the infrared J, H and K bands are presented. Our infrared JHK light curves and radial velocities, together with published radial velocity and UBV data are analyzed in order to determine a new set of stellar parameters. This allows us to determine new absolute

Over the past years, we have performed one of the most extensive study of the young (lambda)-Orionis star forming region, combining photometric data from the xray to the mid-IR, as well as wide field and high spatial resolution imaging. This effort allowed us to identify hundreds of very low mass stars, brown dwarfs and isolated planetary mass

We present near-infrared observations of the low-mass deeply embedded Class 0/I system 2MASS J17112318-2724315 (2M171123) in the B59 molecular cloud. Bright scattered light nebulosity is observed toward this source in the Ks images, that seems to trace the edges of an outflow cavity. We report the detection of a low-luminosity protostar 2M17112255

We present time-resolved spectroscopy and photometry of a new long-period cataclysmic variable (CV) identified from a combined X-ray (ROSAT) /infrared (2MASS) selection method, 1RXS J0629-0335. The preliminary orbital period of ˜9 h has been estimated from its radial velocity variation. We obtained photometry of 1RXS J0629-0335 throughout one month