CCD observations of the gravitational lens system Q0957+561A, B in the BVRI bands are presented in this paper. The observations, taken with the 82 cm IAC-80 telescope at Teide Observatory, Spain, were made from the beginning of 1996 February to 1998 July, as part of an ongoing lens-monitoring program. Accurate photometry was obtained by

We present a detailed and uniform study of C, S, Zn and Cu abundances in a large set of planet host stars, as well as in a homogeneous comparison sample of solar-type dwarfs with no known planetary-mass companions. Carbon abundances were derived by EW measurement of two C I optical lines, while spectral syntheses were performed for S, Zn and Cu. We

The JEM-EUSO telescope will be, after calibration, a very accurate instrument which yields the number of received photons from the number of measured photo-electrons. The project is in phase A (demonstration of the concept) including already operating prototype instruments, i.e. many parts of the instrument have been constructed and tested

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is a three-year survey that is collecting 105 high-resolution spectra in the near-IR across multiple Galactic populations. To derive stellar parameters and chemical compositions from this massive data set, the APOGEE Stellar Parameters and

The Calar Alto Large Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) is a recently started survey with the main aims at observing a statistically well-defined sample of ˜ 600 galaxies in the local universe with the PMAS/PPAK integral field spectrophotometer on the 3.5 m telescope at the CAHA. The main goal of this survey is to characterize the spatially

A detailed study of the spiral galaxy UGC9837 is carried out based on the IFU spectroscopic data from the pilot survey of the Calar Alto Legacy Field Survey (CALIFA). The integrated, radial and spatially resolved properties of the ionized gas are studied. In addition the possible biases caused by using a fixed aperture in studying galaxy properties