Aims: This is the first paper of a series devoted to studying the population of blue massive stars in NGC 55, a galaxy of the Sculptor group at a distance of about 2 Mpc. Methods: We have obtained optical (3300{-}6210 Å), low-resolution spectra of approximately 200 blue massive stars with VLT-FORS2, which we have classified with the aid of Milky

All but three (M87, BL Lac, and 3C 279) extragalactic sources detected so far at very high energy γ-rays belong to the class of high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects. This suggested to us a systematic scan of candidate sources with the MAGIC telescope, based on the Donato et al. compilation of X-ray blazars. The observations took place from 2004

We present time-resolved photometry of the optical counterpart to the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127 which has remained in the low/hard X-ray state and bright at optical/IR wavelengths since its discovery in 2005. At the time of our observations Swift J1753.5-0127 does not show a decay trend but remains stable at R=16.45 with a night-to

We have conducted simultaneous optical and X-ray observations of SWIFT J1753.5-0127 with RXTE and ULTRACAM, while the system persisted in its relatively bright low/hard state. In the cross-correlation function, we find that the optical emission, with a broad negative peak, leads the X-ray emission by a few seconds and has a smaller positive peak at

Supermassive black holes are a key element in our understanding of how galaxies form. Most of the progress in this very active field of research is based on just ~30 determination of black hole masses, accumulated over the past decade. We illustrate how integral-field spectroscopy, and in particular our OASIS modeling effort can help improve the

SUNRISE is an international project for the development, construction and operation of a balloon-borne solar telescope with an aperture of 1 m, working in the UV/VIS spectral domain. The main scientific goal of SUNRISE is to understand the structure and dynamics of the magnetic field in the atmosphere of the Sun. SUNRISE will provide near