We present an investigation into a newly discovered ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in M74, CXOU J013651.1+154547. It varies in luminosity by more than an order of magnitude (from 5 x 1038 to 1 x 1040 erg s-1) in only 30 minutes, and flares on a characteristic timescale of around 4000 s. It has neither a radio nor optical counterpart, which

The instrument LIRIS is a near IR spectrograph to be installed at the WHT telescope. Currently it is being assembled at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The instrument will have a Hawaii 1Kx1K array as the detector. Here we report the laboratory characterization of the scientific grade unit. We give the relevant parameters such as

The University of Florida is developing a mid-infrared camera for the 10.4-meter Gran Telescopio CANARIAS. CanariCam has four science modes and two engineering modes, which use the same 320 x 240-pixel, arsenic-doped silicon, blocked-impurity-band detector from Raytheon. Each mode can be remotely selected quickly during an observing sequence. The

GX 3+1 is a low-mass X-ray binary that is persistently bright since its discovery in 1964. It was found to be an X-ray burster twenty years ago proving that the compact object in this system is a neutron star. The burst rate is so low that only 18 bursts were reported prior to 1996. The Wide Field Cameras on BeppoSAX have, through a dedicated

In July 2001, AutoFib-2 (AF2), the prime focus robotic fiber positioner for the Isaac Newton Group's (ING) 4.2m William Hershel Telescope (WHT) had its new Small Fiber Module (SFM) successfully commissioned. The new SFM contains 150 science fibers and 10 fiducial bundles. Each science fiber has a diameter of 90 μm, which corresponds to 1.6 arcsec

Analyses of stellar spectra often begin with the determination of a number of parameters that define a model atmosphere. This work presents a prototype for an automated spectral classification system that uses a 150-Å-wide region around Hβ, and applies to stars of spectral types A-K with normal (scaled solar) chemical composition. The new tool