V838 Mon has undergone one of the most mysterious stellar outbursts on record. The spectrum at maximum closely resembled a cool AGB star, evolving toward cooler temperatures with time, never reaching optically thin conditions or showing increasing ionization and a nebular stage. The latest spectral type recorded is M8-9. The amplitude peaked at ΔV

We present high-time-resolution spectroscopy of the non-eclipsing old nova V533 Herculis (N Her 1963). It is the second nova remnant affected by the `SW Sex syndrome'. A modulation of the equivalent width of the emission lines with a period of 23.33 min has been detected. This, together with the strong He IIλ4686 emission characteristic of magnetic

From the peak of a gravitational microlensing high-magnification event in the A component of QSO 2237+0305, which was accurately monitored by the Gravitational Lenses International Time Project collaboration, we derived new information on the nature and size of the optical V-band and R-band sources in the distant quasar. If the microlensing peak is

We have studied the host galaxies of a sample of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) spanning more than 4 decades in the energy output of the nucleus. The core sample includes 40 low-power sources (BL Lac objects) and 22 high-power sources (radio-loud quasars) spanning the redshift range 0.15

We analyze Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) spectra in the 1150-1700 Å wavelength range obtained for six early B supergiants in the neighboring galaxy M31. Because of their likely high (nearly solar) abundance, these stars were originally chosen to be directly comparable to their Galactic counterparts and represent a much needed addition

Horizontal velocities and their temporal variations inside a large pore and in the surrounding granulation are studied from a 73 min sequence of white light frames, acquired at the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope (La Palma). The local correlation tracking technique with high spatial (0farcs 31) and temporal (5 min) resolution was applied to