We present ground-based B- and R-band color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) reaching the oldest main-sequence (MS) turnoffs with good photometric accuracy for 12 fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Our fields, located between ~1° and ~4° from the center of the galaxy, are situated in different parts of the SMC such as the ``Wing'' area and toward

The Earth's albedo is one the least studied of the fundamental climate parameters. The albedo is a bi-directional property, and there is a high degree of anisotropy in the reflected light from a given surface. However, simultaneously observing all points on Earth from all reflecting angles is a practical impossibility. Therefore, all measurements

Characterizing multiplicity in the very low mass (VLM) domain is a topic of much current interest and fundamental importance. Here we report on a near-infrared adaptive optics imaging survey of 28 young brown dwarfs and VLM stars, 26 of which are in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region, using the ESO Very Large Telescope. Our findings in Cha I --

Our neighbouring galaxy M31 (Andromeda), located 780 kpc away, offers a unique opportunity to study the X-ray population of a galaxy similar to the Milky Way. We have concentrated our monitoring campaign on following the X-ray activity of the stellar-mass black hole candidates, XRNe (X-Ray Novae), in the central region of M31. Observations are made

We present the complete data set, model, and line identification of a survey of the emission from the C-rich proto-planetary nebula CRL 618 performed with the IRAM 30 m telescope in the frequency ranges 80.25-115.75 GHz, 131.25-179.25 GHz, and 204.25-275.250 GHz. A selection of lines from different species has been used in previous works to derive

A new stellar library developed for stellar population synthesis modelling is presented. The library consists of 985 stars spanning a large range in atmospheric parameters. The spectra were obtained at the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope and cover the range 3525-7500{AA} at 2.3{AA} (full width at half-maximum) spectral resolution. The spectral