We review the needs of the CoRoT /exoplanet program in terms of complementary observations. Such observations are indeed an essential element of the science of the CoRoT mission at different levels: prior to the launch for a characterization and a careful selection of the target stars in the exoplanet fields and during or after the CoRoT flight

We investigate three barred lenticular galaxies (NGC 2681, NGC 3945 and NGC 4371), which were previously reported to have complex central structures but without a detailed structural analysis of these galaxies' high-resolution data. We have therefore performed four- to six-component (pseudo-)bulge/disc/bar/ring/point source) decompositions of the

Not Available

Asteroid families are formed by the fragments produced by the disruption of a common parent body (Bendjoya & Zappalà 2002). Primitive asteroids in the solar system are believed to have undergone less thermal processing than the S-complex asteroids. Thus, study of primitive asteroid families provides information about the solar system formation

This communication presents the current status of the conceptual design of a high resolution, integral field spectrograph with multi-slit and multi-wavelength capabilities, designed for the 4 meter European Solar Telescope (EST).

It has recently been noted that there seems to be a strong correlation between planetary nebulae with close binary central stars and highly enhanced recombination line abundances. We present new deep spectra of seven objects known to have close binary central stars, and find that the heavy element abundances derived from recombination lines exceed