Visual and infrared light curves of the noncontact, short period, close binary system UR Tauri were obtained in 1992 November. A new ephemeris of the binary is given using the times of minima inferred from all the observations of the system to date. New light and photometric data from the analysis of the B, V and J,K light curves via the Wilson

We will present results of a survey of Hilda asteroids to look for extreme shape objects. We used WISE [1, 2] sparse IR photometry to identify objects with high photometric variability in different bands. Highly variable candidates were targeted by densely sampled, follow-up ground-based photometry. Similar strategies were successfully used to

EK Cep is a double-lined eclipsing binary system with unique characteristics. Accurate absolute dimensions are available, a good determination of the surface lithium abundance has been made, the system is known to show apsidal motion variations, and its secondary component seems to be in the pre main sequence phase. Due to all this, it appears to

We used a new generation of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stellar models that include dust formation in the stellar winds to find the links between evolutionary models and the observed properties of a homogeneous sample of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) planetary nebulae (PNe). Comparison between the evolutionary yields of elements such as CNO and

A large-scale three-dimensional model of Galactic extinction is presented based on the Galactic dust distribution model of citet{DS01}. The extinction AV to any point within the Galactic disk can be quickly deduced using a set of three-dimensional Cartesian grids. Extinctions from the model are compared to empirical extinction measures, including

The first results are presented here of the Two-Micron Galactic Survey (TMGS). The TMGS is the most sensitive near-infrared survey of the Galactic plane yet attempted on a large scale. The Galactic plane has been drift-scanned in several regions over the areas -5° l 30°, |b| ≤ 15° and 30° l 180°, |b| ≤ 5°. The discussion in this paper