The abundance gradient in M 33 is studied on the basis of IPCS and CCD data on emission lines in selected H II regions, using O II, O III, S II, and S III in the wavelength range 3700-9600 A to refine the oxygen abundances in the inner parts as well as to study the behavior of S/O. Spatially resolved observations in each H II region permit the

Aims. The aim of this work is to shed some light on the problem of the formation of carbon stars of R-type from a detailed study of their chemical composition. Methods: We use high-resolution and high signal-to-noise optical spectra of 23 R-type stars (both early- and late-types) selected from the Hipparcos catalogue. The chemical analysis is made

Spectroscopic studies of stars with and without planetary systems have concluded that planet hosts are more metal-rich. This enrichment is also seen in the other chemical elements studied and is likely to be primordial in nature. Interesting trends of different chemical elements begin to appear as the number of extrasolar planets continues to grow

Magnetic fields in the solar chromosphere play a key role in the energy transfer and dynamics of the solar atmosphere. Yet a direct observation of the chromospheric magnetic field remains one of the greatest challenges in solar physics. While some advances have been made for observing the Zeeman effect in strong chromospheric lines, the effect is

We present an overview of the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP) program. CLASP is a proposed sounding rocket experiment currently under development as collaboration between Japan, USA and Spain. The aim is to achieve the first measurement of magnetic field in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun through the

We present measurements of galaxy clustering from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III). These use the Data Release 9 (DR9) CMASS sample, which contains 264 283 massive galaxies covering 3275 square degrees with an effective redshift z = 0.57 and redshift range 0.43 z 0.7