We present optical and near IR follow up observations of the dark GRB 001109, 1-300 days after the event. No transient emission has been found for these wavelengths within this GRB's (Gamma Ray Burst) BeppoSAX 1' radius error box. Strong limits are set with K' > 20. A highly reddened galaxy, with variable radio emission, was found at z = 0.398. It

The Mn I 543.25 nm spectral line has unusually broad line profile due to its hyperfine structure. Here we present the results of LTE calculation of the synthetical profile of the Mn I 543.25 nm line in the solar spectrum. We used the Oxford total absorption oscillator strength measurements as the first approximation for hyperfine structure. The

We present new results on the Hubble diagram of distant type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) segregated according to the type of host galaxy. This makes it possible to check earlier evidence for a cosmological constant by explicitly comparing SNe residing in galaxies likely to contain negligible dust with the larger sample. The cosmological parameters

The proto-planetary nebula Hen 3-1475 shows a remarkable highly collimated optical jet with an S-shaped string of three pairs of knots and extremely high velocities. We present here a detailed analysis of the overall morphology, kinematic structure and the excitation conditions of these knots based on deep ground-based high dispersion spectroscopy

The surface brightness profile in the V band of the Phoenix dwarf galaxy shows two stellar components: an inner one, which contains all the young stars of the galaxy, and an outer one predominantly populated by red stars. Deep color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations and reaching the oldest turn-offs, are

We investigate the evolution of mass-selected early-type field galaxies using a sample of 28 gravitational lenses spanning the redshift range 0