We report on early observations of the optical afterglow of GRB 070411 obtained by the Črni Vrh 0.6-m, the ROTSE IIIc 0.45-m, and the Tautenburg 1.34-m Schmidt telescope starting within 1 to 5 minutes after the trigger. The derived light curve presents a rising phase, then a plateau followed by a steep decay and finally a jet break.

Gamma ray astronomy is now at the leading edge for studies related both to fundamental physics and astrophysics. The sensitivity of gamma detectors is limited by the huge amount of background, constituted by hadronic cosmic rays (typically two to three orders of magnitude more than the signal) and by the accidental background in the detectors. By

The determination of the galaxy merger fraction of field galaxies using automatic morphological indices and photometric redshifts is affected by several biases if observational errors are not properly treated. Here, we correct these biases using maximum likelihood techniques. The method takes into account the observational errors to statistically

We have performed a spectroscopic study of globular clusters (GCs) in the nearest giant elliptical NGC 5128 using the 2dF facility at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We obtained integrated optical spectra for a total of 254 GCs, 79 of which are newly confirmed on the basis of their radial velocities and spectra. In addition, we obtained an

Available from the Minor Planet Center.

Available from the Minor Planet Center.