We discuss SAURON absorption line strength maps of a sample of 24 early-type spirals, mostly Sa. From the Lick indices H$eta$, Mg b and Fe 5015 we derive SSP-ages and metallicities. By comparing the scaling relations of Mg b and H beta and central velocity dispersion with the same relation for the edge-on sample of Falcon-Barroso et al. (2002) we

We present high-resolution echelle spectra of seven proximate damped Lyman α (PDLA) systems. The relative velocity separation of each PDLA from the background quasar is Δ V 3000 km s-1. Combining our sample with a further nine PDLAs from the literature we compare the chemical properties of the proximate systems with a control sample of intervening

We report new (1995) Very Large Array (VLA) observations and (1984-1999) Effelsberg 100 m monitoring observations of the 22 GHz H2O maser spectrum of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068. The sensitive VLA observations provide a registration of the 22 GHz continuum emission and the location of the maser spots with an accuracy of ~5 mas. Within the

SAX J1711.6-3808 is an X-ray transient in the Galactic bulge that was active from January through May of 2001 and whose maximum 1-200 keV luminosity was measured to be 5x 10-9 erg cm-2 s-1 which is less than ~ 25% of the Eddington limit, if placed at a distance equal to that of the galactic center. We study the X-ray data that were taken of this

The neutron star low-mass X-ray binary and long thermonuclear burst source XTE J1701-407 (ATel #1618) has been active ever since its discovery in 2008 June (ATel #1569), displaying a typical 2-10 keV luminosity of ~5E36 erg/s (assuming a distance D=5.0 kpc; ATel #2814). However, routine monitoring of the Galactic bulge with the PCA aboard RXTE

The telescope structure including control system and the complete retractable dome of the new 1.5 m solar telescope GREGOR were assembled during 2004 at Izana on Tenerife, Spain. The GREGOR telescope is build by a consortium of the Kiepenheuer Institut fuer Sonnenphysik, the Astrophysikalische Institut Potsdam, the Institut fuer Astrophysik