The various methods for studying in detail relevant stellar population parameters throught the integrated light are reviewed. The emphasis is given to the analysis based on absorption line-strength indices. The state-of-the-art of the stellar population synthesis models and methodologies is summarized. Finally some of the various uncertainties and

As part of a program to measure abundance ratios in stars beyond 15 kpc from the Galactic center, we have discovered a metal-poor star in the outer halo with a unique chemical signature. We originally identified it in the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration survey as a distant metal-poor star. We obtained a follow-up spectrum

The INT photometric H-alpha Survey (IPHAS; http://www.iphas.org) is now near completion. A band of 10 degrees along the Northern Galactic Plane is being imaged in Hα, r' and i' filters with typically 1 arcsec resolution and a completeness limit better than r'=20 mag. IPHAS is filling in the currently existing gap in the Planetary Nebulae (PNe)

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Magnetized plasma is emerging continually from the solar interior into the atmosphere. Magnetic flux emergence events and their consequences in the solar atmosphere are being observed with high space, time and spectral resolution by a large number of space missions in operation at present (e.g. SOHO, Hinode, Stereo, Rhessi). The collision of an

Context: This is the second paper of a series devoted to the WIde Field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS). WINGS is a long term project which is gathering wide-field, multi-band imaging and spectroscopy of galaxies in a complete sample of 77 X-ray selected, nearby clusters (0.04 z 0.07) located far from the galactic plane (|b|≥ 20°). The main