We use Gaia DR2 systemic proper motions of 45 satellite galaxies to constrain the mass of the Milky Way using the scale-free mass estimator of Watkins et al. (2010). We first determine the anisotropy parameter β, and the tracer satellites' radial density index γ to be β = $-0.67^{+0.45}_{-0.62}$ and γ = 2.11 ± 0.23. When we exclude possible former

We present results from a global view on the colliding-wind binary WR 147. We analysed new optical spectra of WR 147 obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias and archive spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope by making use of modern atmosphere models accounting for optically thin clumping. We adopted a grid-modelling approach to derive some

Context. AT 2019abn was discovered in the nearby M51 galaxy by the Zwicky Transient Facility at more than two magnitudes and around three weeks prior to its optical peak. Aims: We aim to conduct a detailed photometric and spectroscopic follow-up campaign for AT 2019abn, with early discovery allowing for significant pre-maximum observations of an

We present a detailed study of the composition of 20 M giants in the Galactic center with 15 of them confirmed to be in the nuclear star cluster. As a control sample we have also observed 7 M giants in the Milky Way disk with similar stellar parameters. All 27 stars are observed using the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the KECK II telescope in the K-band