We present an overview of the sample of Northern hemisphere white dwarfs within 40 pc of the Sun detected from Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2). We find that 521 sources are spectroscopically confirmed degenerate stars, 111 of which were first identified as white dwarf candidates from Gaia DR2 and followed up recently with the William Herschel Telescope

We present a spectroscopic survey of 230 white dwarf candidates within 40 pc of the Sun from the William Herschel Telescope and Gran Telescopio Canarias. All candidates were selected from Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) and in almost all cases, had no prior spectroscopic classifications. We find a total of 191 confirmed white dwarfs and 39 main-sequence

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has as main objective to promote and carry out all types of research in astrophysics and its related fields. This mission means that the IAC has been involved in instrumental developments for both ground-based and space observations for decades. This accumulated experience led the IAC to launch an

The fundamentals of the whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are well established in the literature, with several successful proof-of-concept experiments. One remarkable benefit of this technology is the room-temperature operation. This characteristic could be used to build a new generation of radiometers that do not need to be cooled down to

The low surface brightness Universe is one of the latest frontier in observational Astronomy. However, uncovering the precious information contained in ultra-deep imaging is technically challenging. In this contribution, we will present one of the fundamental tools in the toolbox of low surface brightness astronomers: the extended Point Spread

The low surface brightness (LSB) universe is one of the last frontiers in observational astronomy. However, uncovering the information contained in ultra-deep imaging is technically challenging. In this contribution, we present one of the fundamental tools of LSB astronomers: correcting for the extended Point-Spread Function (PSF), which is