A number of outstanding scientific problems require a high resolution, visual spectrograph at the E-ELT. Measuring the dynamics of the universe, finding earth-like planets with radial velocity techniques, determining the chemical evolution of the intergalactic medium and if physical constants varied in the past, all require a superior capability of

Context: L-type ultra-cool dwarfs and brown dwarfs have cloudy atmospheres that could host weather-like phenomena. The detection of photometric or spectral variability would provide insight into unresolved atmospheric heterogeneities, such as holes in a global cloud deck. Indeed, a number of ultra-cool dwarfs have been reported to vary. Additional

CLÉS is an evolution code recently developed to produce stellar models meeting the specific requirements of studies in asteroseismology. It offers the users a lot of choices in the input physics they want in their models and its versatility allows them to tailor the code to their needs and implement easily new features. We describe the features

As part of our ongoing Chandra/HST M31 transient program we report on Chandra ACIS observations of M31 containing the new transient sources reported by Pietsch et al. (2008, ATel #1647). Two 5ks observations were performed on 2008-05-31.47 UT (Obs. 1) and 2008-07-15.70 UT (Obs. 2), both prior to the observation of Pietsch et al. (2008, Obs. 3)

Aims: We describe the discovery of an extremely wide pair of low-mass stars with a common large proper motion and discuss their possible membership in a Galactic halo stream crossing the Solar neighbourhood. Methods: In a high proper motion survey of the southern sky we used multi-epoch positions and photometry from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys. New

In this contribution an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) developed for the FastCam project is presented. FastCam is a system based on 'lucky imaging' techniques for high spatial resolution, developed at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). The use of a system to correct the atmosphere's effects is necessary to obtain a good optics