We present optical imaging and long slit spectroscopic observations of nine luminous type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGN) within the redshift range 0.3 z 0.6 based on Very Large Telescope Focal Reducer and Low Dispersion Spectrograph (VLT FORS2) data. Most objects (6/9) are high luminosity Seyfert 2, and three are type 2 quasars (QSO2), with our

The flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 1441+25 at a redshift of z = 0.940 is detected between 40 and 250 GeV with a significance of 25.5σ using the MAGIC telescopes. Together with the gravitationally lensed blazar QSO B0218+357 (z = 0.944), PKS 1441+25 is the most distant very high energy (VHE) blazar detected to date. The observations were triggered

We identified and characterized the largest (536) RR Lyrae (RRL) sample in a Milky Way dSph satellite (Sculptor) based on optical photometry data collected over ˜24 years. The RRLs display a spread in V-magnitude (˜0.35 mag) which appears larger than photometric errors and the horizontal branch (HB) luminosity evolution of a mono-metallic

The detailed study of the different stellar populations which can be observed in galaxies is one of the most promising methods to shed light on the evolutionary histories of galaxies. So far, stellar population analysis has been carried out mainly in the optical wavelength range. The infrared spectral range, on the other hand, has been poorly