We present a study characterizing the environments of galaxies in the redshift range of 0.4 z 1 based on data from the POWIR near-infrared imaging and DEEP2 spectroscopic redshift surveys, down to a stellar mass of log M*= 10.25 M&sun;. Galaxy environments are measured in terms of nearest-neighbour densities as well as fixed aperture densities

Context. High-contrast imaging at optical wavelengths is limited by the modest correction of conventional near-IR optimized AO systems. We take advantage of new fast and low-readout-noise detectors to explore the potential of fast imaging coupled to post-processing techniques to detect faint companions of stars at small angular separations. Aims

Using simultaneous observations in X-rays and optical, we have performed a homogeneous analysis of the cross-correlation behaviours of four X-ray binaries: SWIFT J1753.5-0127, GX 339-4, Sco X-1 and Cyg X-2. With high-time-resolution observations using ULTRACAM and RXTE, we concentrate on the short time-scale, δt 20 s, variability in these sources

Most of the known transiting extrasolar planets orbit slowly rotating F, G or K stars. In here we report on the detection of a transiting planet orbiting the bright, rapidly rotating A5 star HD15082, recently made by SuperWASP. Time resolved spectroscopic observations taken during transit show a hump caused by the planet crossing the line profile

The transient black hole candidate GX 339-4 has been in outburst since January 2010 (ATel #2380, #2384, #2455, #2459, #2525) and made a transition from the hard state to the soft state during March - May 2010 (ATel #2523, #2545, #2547, #2556, #2573, #2577, #2593). The source remained in a soft state for ~ eight months before finally hardening in

During the five years of the mission, the Gaia spectrograph, the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) will repeatedly survey the celestial sphere down to magnitude V ~ 17-18. This talk presents: (i) the system which is currently developed within the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) to reduce and calibrate the spectra and to derive