Extensive characterisation of subsystems such as detectors and their curing, preamplifiers, filters, on-board secondary standard sources and cryomechanisms were the basis for the understanding of the assembled instrument and the development of a dedicated CALibration FACility for ISOPHOT. In the CALFAC the instrument was fully calibrated and the

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Hot subdwarf stars (hot sds) are blue subluminous objects at high galactic latitudes. They split into two well-separated spectroscopic sequences: the O (sdOs) and B-type (sdBs), according to composition and effective temperature. As they are immediate progenitors of white dwarfs (WDs), this resembles the spectroscopic H (DA)/He (DB) distinction

Although dwarf elliptical galaxies are the dominant galaxy population in nearby clusters, their origin and nature remain a mystery. The main aim of this project is to compare the dynamical properties and star formation histories of a sample of dwarf ellipticals in the Virgo cluster with those of the classical elliptical galaxies. In particular

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Between 2000 June and September an exceptional variability phase occurred in the peculiar F-type hypergiant Rho Cas, when the V-brightness dimmed by at least a full magnitude. The star recovered from this deep minimum by 2001 April. It is the third outburst of Rho Cas on record in the last century. We observe TiO absorption bands in high-resolution