We present a new generation SCIDAR instrument that is a fully automatically controlled device with a user-friendly interface. Alignment and observation are reduced to easy and rapid handling without the effort operating in the dome. This instrument is installed in the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma. We describe our progress from prototype to

Damped transverse oscillations of magnetic loops are routinely observed in the solar corona. This phenomenon is interpreted as standing kink magnetohydrodynamic waves, which are damped by resonant absorption owing to plasma inhomogeneity across the magnetic field. The periods and damping times of these oscillations can be used to probe the physical

We have used observations made with the helioseismic instrument LOWL collected over ~6 years to carry out an independent study of the variations of the p-mode damping and excitation rates with solar activity. We observe significant variations in the mode height, mode width, and mode velocity power over a wide range of angular-degree values. Their

We use a combination of three large N-body simulations to investigate the dependence of dark matter halo concentrations on halo mass and redshift in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe year 5 (WMAP5) cosmology. The median relation between concentration and mass is adequately described by a power law for halo masses in the range 1011-1015h

Based on photometry of deep CCD frames of the central region of the OB cluster Berkeley 86, we derive the cluster mass function. The absence of current star formation, and the cluster's young age of about 6Myrs, leads to the conclusion that the initial mass function (IMF) and the current mass function are identical for stars with m

On 4 July 2005, many observatories around the world and in space observed the collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 or its aftermath. This was an unprecedented coordinated observational campaign. These data show that (i) there was new material after impact that was compositionally different from that seen before impact; (ii) the ratio of