The Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager, AOLI, is an instrument developed to deliver the highest spatial resolution ever obtained in the visible, 20 mas, from ground-based telescopes. In AOLI a new philosophy of instrumental prototyping has been applied, based on the modularization of the subsystems. This modular concept offers maximum flexibility

During the summer of 2013, a 4-month spectroscopic campaign took place to observe the variabilities in three Wolf-Rayet stars. The spectroscopic data have been analysed for WR 134 (WN6b), to better understand its behaviour and long-term periodicity, which we interpret as arising from corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the wind. By analysing

Context. During the past decade, several studies reported a correlation between chemical abundances of stars and condensation temperature (also known as Tc trend). However, the real astrophysical nature of this correlation is still debated. Aims: The main goal of this work is to explore the possible dependence of the Tc trend on stellar

The ESA cornerstone mission Gaia will revolutionise astronomy observing objects as diverse as minor planets, stars,and galaxies out to QSOs. We estimate that Gaia will observe directly 500 L0 to L4 dwarfs and a handful ofbr /> L5 to T1 dwarfs, providing precision of 0.1-0.3 mas in parallax for these objects, and tangential velocities at thenbsp

We report on Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and multi-wavelength results on the recently discovered very-high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) blazar S4 0954+65 (z = 0.368) during an exceptionally bright optical flare in 2015 February. During the time period (2015 February 13/14, or MJD 57067) when the MAGIC telescope detected VHE γ-ray emission from

Spitzer/IRS spectra of eleven heavily obscured C-rich sources rapidly evolving from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to Planetary Nebulae are presented. IRAM 30m observations for three of these post-AGBs are also reported. A few (3) of these sources are known to exhibit strongly variable maser emission of O-bearing molecules such as OH and H2 O