Phase-resolved medium-resolution VLT spectroscopy of the low-mass X-ray binary GX9+9 has revealed narrow CIII emission lines that move in phase relative to our new estimate of the ephemeris, and show a velocity amplitude of 230 +/- 35 km s-1. We identify the origin of these lines as coming from the surface of the donor star, thereby providing the

As part of a monitoring campaign of quiescent and outbursting low-mass X-ray binaries with the CTIO/SMARTS telescopes and the Faulkes telescopes , we report observations of Aql X-1 and confirm the optical counterpart of the new X-ray outburst (ATel #1216). On 2007 Aug 30 (MJD 54342.26) we performed optical observations of Aql X-1 for 100 sec each

We analyse new integral-field spectroscopy of the inner region (central 2.5 kpc) of the spiral galaxy NGC 4321 to study the peculiar kinematics of this region. Fourier analysis of the velocity residuals obtained by subtracting an axisymmetric rotation model from the Hα velocity field indicates that the distortions are global features generated by

We have used the large database of photometric observations of the bright and dark portions of the face of the Moon from the Earthshine Project at Big Bear Solar Observatory to determine the surface brightness of the earthshine and its variations. Our purpose is to make these observations appropriate for the calibration of lunar flashes according

We present simultaneous spectropolarimetric observations of four visible (630 nm) and three infrared (1565 nm) spectral lines from the German Vacuum Tower Telescope, together with speckle-reconstructed filtergrams in the G-band and the Ca II H line core from the Dutch Open Telescope. After alignment of the data sets, we used the G-band intensity to

During its first data cycle, between 2005 and the beginning of 2006, the fast repositioning system of the MAGIC telescope allowed the observation of nine different gamma-ray bursts as possible sources of very high energy γ-rays. These observations were triggered by alerts from Swift, HETE-2, and INTEGRAL; they started as quickly as possible after