For the past 3 years we have been monitoring a sample of 62 K giant stars using precise stellar radial velocity measurements with high accuracy taken at the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg. We search for sub-stellar companions to giant stars and try to understand the nature of the diverse radial velocity variations exhibited by K giant stars

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Blue straggler star (BSS) candidates have been observed in all old dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs), however whether or not they are authentic BSSs or young stars has been a point of debate. To both address this issue and obtain a better understanding of the formation of BSSs in different environments, we have analysed a sample of BSS candidates

Context: The historic plates of the Carte du Ciel, an international cooperative project launched in 1887, offers valuable first-epoch material for determining of absolute proper motions. Aims: We present an original method of digitizing and astrometrically reducing Carte du Ciel plate material using an inexpensive flatbed scanner, to demonstrate

Context: The physical interpretation of scattering line polarization offers a novel diagnostic window for exploring the thermal and magnetic structure of the quiet regions of the solar atmosphere. Aims: We evaluate the impact of isotropic collisions with neutral hydrogen atoms on the scattering polarization signals of the 13 lines of multiplet 42

We present absorption line strength maps for a sample of 18 Sb-Sd galaxies observed using the integral-field spectrograph SAURON operating at the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, as part of a project devoted to the investigation of the kinematics and stellar populations of late-type spirals, a relatively unexplored field. The SAURON spectral