A new approximate method for calculating the opacity of the atomic lines in the computation of stellar model atmospheres is presented. Transforming the sums in the equation of the opacity of the lines into integrals and considering the Kramers equation for the oscillator strengths for level transitions in the hydrogenic atoms as a continuous

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Context: Deep photometry of crowded fields, such as Galactic globular clusters, is severely limited by the resolution of ground-based telescopes. On the other hand, the Hubble Space Telescope does not have the near-infrared (NIR) filters needed to allow large color baselines. Aims: In this work we demonstrate how ground based observations can reach

Aims: We estimate the minimum length on which solar granulation can be considered to be a Markovian process. Methods: We measure the variation in the bright difference between two pixels in images of the solar granulation for different distances between the pixels. This scale-dependent data is empirically analyzed to find the minimum scale on which

Context: The space experiment CoRoT has recently detected transits by a hot Jupiter across the disc of an active G7V star (CoRoT-Exo-2a) that can be considered as a good proxy for the Sun at an age of approximately 0.5 Gyr. Aims: We present a spot modelling of the optical variability of the star during 142 days of uninterrupted observations

The active galactic nucleus PG 1553+113 was observed by the MAGIC telescope in July 2006 during a multiwavelength campaign, in which telescopes in the optical, X-ray, and very high energies participated. Although the MAGIC data were affected by strong atmospheric absorption (calima), they were analyzed after applying a correction. In 8.5 h, a