We present a long-term project to study the characteristics and evolution of current star-forming galaxies at different redshifts. Our results support the idea that the higher Star Formation Density measured at redshift z=0.24 is due to an increase of the density of bursting galaxies and not to an intrinsic change on overall galaxy properties.

We present results of an optical and near-infrared (IR) 1.8 deg2 survey in the Pleiades open cluster to search for substellar objects. From optical I-band images from the CFHT and J-band images from the 3.5 m CAHA Telescope, we identify 18 faint and very red L brown dwarf candidates, with I> 20.9 and I-J> 3.2. The follow-up observations of nine

The origin and sources of rejuvenated volcanism in Hawaii has been long debated with the depleted isotopic features commonly attributed to assimilation of the 110 Ma-old Pacific oceanic lithosphere underlying Hawaii. Alternatively, it has been recently suggested that this depleted component is a long-lived feature intrinsic to the Hawaiian plume [1

We report recent observational results of some ULXs collected with the 8.2m Subaru and with the ESO VLT telescopes. These observations have provided important information on the (inter-) stellar environments and have allowed to detect the optical counterparts of several ULXs. In two cases spectroscopic observations show stellar HeIIλ4686 optical

We present high-resolution spectral observations, covering the entire optical region (3800-9000 Å), of a solar flare observed during a multi-wavelength campaign. The flare, recorded on 2002 January 11, was a medium solar flare event (GOES class C7.5). The spectral observations were carried out using the Hamilton echelle spectrograph on the coudé

We present Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) observations of OH maser and radio continuum emission within a few hundred pc of the core of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) Markarian 231. This is the only known OH megamaser galaxy classed as a Seyfert 1. Maser emission is identified with the 1665- and 1667-MHz