We report the detection of the LiI λ6708 resonance line in the K4V secondary of the black-hole binary Nova Muscae 1991. The LiI feature changes with orbital phase, being stronger (EW ∼ 400 mÅ) around φ = 0.0 (observing the dark side of the secondary) and weaker (EW ≤ 190 mÅ) around φ = 0.5 (observing the side facing the compact object). This effect

We present preliminary results of VLT spectroscopy follow-up of Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and HII regions in the dwarf Irregular galaxy NGC 3109. In total we have observed 15 PNe (of a total of 18) and about 50 HII: at least for 10 PNe and 10 HII regions the very faint [O III]4363 line is observed allowing to derive accurate abundances. The

We present long-term photometric observations of the young open cluster IC 348 with a baseline time-scale of 2.4 yr. Our study was conducted with several telescopes from the Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative (YETI) network in the Bessel R band to find periodic variability of young stars. We identified 87 stars in IC 348 to be periodically variable

We present low resolution maps, of a 4' × 0'.5 region, of comet Halley, in photometric bands J and K, a central scan in the H band and JHKL photometry taken with the 1.5 m Sanchez-Magro Telescope of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. We obtain central and integrated magnitudes and colours and discuss its variation with distance from the

Presented are the results of a large and deep optical-near-infrared multi-epoch survey of the Praesepe open star cluster using data from the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Galactic Clusters Survey. Multiple colour-magnitude diagrams were used to select potential members and proper motions were used to assign levels of membership

The double distance and metallicity frontier marked by the SMC has been finally broken with the aid of powerful multi-object spectrographs installed at 8-10m class telescopes. VLT, GTC and Keck have enabled studies of massive stars in dwarf irregular galaxies of the Local Group with poorer metal-content than the SMC. The community is working to