Over the last few years a large set of spectropolarimetric observations of prominences and spicules in the He I D3 multiplet have been collected at the observatory of the Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (IRSOL), using increasingly improved versions of the ZIMPOL polarimeter. The novel HAZEL inversion code of Stokes profiles generated by the joint

In addition to its search for extrasolar planets, the NASA Kepler mission provides exquisite data on stellar oscillations. We report the detections of oscillations in 500 solar-type stars in the Kepler field of view, an ensemble that is large enough to allow statistical studies of intrinsic stellar properties (such as mass, radius, and age) and to

Scattering polarization in complex atoms poses interesting theoretical problems and is interesting for diagnostic plasma purposes. Here, an elementary theory on the generation and transfer of scattering polarization and Hanle effect in complex atoms (chiefly, transition metals and rare earths) is introduced. It is based on the quantum mechanical

The bulk of the quiet solar photosphere is thought to be significantly magnetized, due to the ubiquitous presence of a tangled magnetic field at subresolution scales with an average strength langBrang ~ 100 G. This conclusion was reached through detailed three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer modeling of the Hanle effect in the Sr I 4607 Å line

We present wide-field photometry of resolved stars in the nearby Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy using CTIO/MOSAIC, going down to the oldest main sequence turn-off. The accurately flux calibrated wide field colour-magnitude diagrams can be used to constrain the ages of different stellar populations, and also their spatial distribution. The

Using spectropolarimetric data of an Active Region (AR) filament we have carried out inversions in order to infer vector magnetic fields in the photosphere (Si I line) and in the chromosphere (He I line). Our filament lies above the polarity inversion line (PIL) situated close to disk center and presents strong Zeeman-like signatures in both