The ultrafast relaxation of small clusters immediately after ionization is studied. For small Hg$_n$ clusters we determine the fragmentation-time distributions induced by ionization. A dramatic change of the fragmentation behaviour occurs when the temperature before ionization reaches the melting point of the neutral clusters. The ultrafast

We present spectropolarimetry of the powerful radio galaxy 3C 265 at z=0.811. The rest-frame UV continuum, which has an elongated structure misaligned by about 35 deg with respect to the radio axis, and the broad MgII 2800 are strongly polarized, while the narrow forbidden lines are unpolarized. The E-vector direction is constant with wavelength

We present recent observations of quiet regions near the center of the solar disk using the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter. These observations reveal a component of the solar magnetic field heretofore unobserved: isolated, small-scale (typically 1"-2" or smaller), predominantly horizontal magnetic flux structures in the solar photosphere. These

We report optical spectroscopy and redshift determination for 22 radio galaxies, extracted from the Ekers et al. (1989) compilation. Selected sources, which have both Fanaroff & Riley type I and II radio morphology and are classified as elliptical or S0, have a typical early-type spectrum with strong absorption lines as generally observed in non

Ground-based observations of the sunspot irradiance deficit Ψ and the excess by facular regions in the period 1989 June 3-15 are analyzed using photometric techniques. The results are compared with solar irradiance measurements taken by the Nimbus 7 satellite. The photographic sunspot data were obtained at the Vakuum Newton Teleskop, Observatorio

We present new J=1->0 ^12^CO observations along the northern spiral arm of the grand-design spiral galaxy M 100 (NGC 4321), and study the distribution of molecular hydrogen as derived from these observations, comparing the new data with a set of data points on the southern arm published previously. We compare these measurements on both spiral arms