Departures from a simple exponential decay (usually called breaks or truncations) in the surface brightness distribution of galaxy disks are found in the vast majority of spirals. Understanding the origin of these breaks and how they evolve with time are key to address the mechanisms of galaxy growth. However, the community has encountered a

This paper presents the proposal of a high resolution, integral field spectrograph that is currently being designed for the 4-meter aperture European Solar Telescope. This instrument is optimized for the study of the solar chromosphere and photosphere to allow the investigation of magnetic phenomena concentrated within these two layers. It will

We present the radial profiles of the age, metallicity and alpha /Fe enhancement of the stellar populations in the bulge-dominated region for a sample of eight spiral galaxies with a low surface-brightness stellar disc and a bulge. Almost all the sample bulges are characterized by a young stellar population, a solar alpha /Fe enhancement, and a

We present the discovery of a very peculiar L dwarf from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS), ULAS J222711-004547. Its very red infrared colours (MKO J-K = 2.79) make it the reddest brown dwarf discovered so far. The object was discovered as part of a large spectroscopic campaign aimed at constraining the sub-stellar birth rate. We obtained a

We discuss brown dwarf properties that can be measured from current and future deep surveys, and how fundamental parameters, such as the mass function and formation history may be measured. As well as the possibility of finding new populations of benchmark objects that can be used to refine the calibration of ultra-cool models with new precisely

Two new late-type L subdwarfs were discovered in our recent search of UKIDSS and SDSS. We discuss the signatures of halo brown dwarfs based on known and new L subdwarfs. These indicate that the halo stellar/substellar T_eff gap is likely between esdL4 and esdL6.