Broad-band images have been obtained at the extremes of the continuum absorption coefficient of the solar atmosphere, at lambda 0.8 mu m and lambda 1.55 mu m. Quiet regions have been observed for different heliocentric angles. The centre-to-limb variation of granulation contrast has been computed in both wavelength ranges and a steeper decrease in

Stellar spectroscopic classification has been successfully automated by a number of groups. Automated classification and parameterization work best when applied to a homogeneous data set, and thus these techniques primarily have been developed for and applied to large surveys. While most ongoing large spectroscopic surveys target extragalactic

We compare B supergiants stellar parameters derived from analyses using plane-parallel and unified model astmospheres. Both codes are stationary, NLTE and un-blanketed, and the atomic data set is also the same for both of them. Plane-parallel model atmospheres are calculated with ALI using DETAIL/SURFACE for silicon level populations and for the

We present a way of handling and interpreting stellar proper motions, in which the idea of substituting them by great circles, proposed by Herschel in 1783, allows us to take the entire celestial sphere as a field of application, making possible the study of dense and extensive stellar zones. A suitable mathematical processing of data together with

We obtained deep optical imaging of the Alpha Per open cluster using the KPNO 4-m CCD mosaic camera, MOSA, on November 19-22 1998. All of the images were obtained with the facility R and I filters. In addition to the KPNO/MOSA observations, we undertook several infrared observing campaigns at the Hispano-German Calar Alto Observatory in order to

The optical design for the proposed Euro50 extremely large telescope with integrated adaptive optics (AO) is presented. For atmospheric turbulence correction, we propose using single and dual-conjugate AO systems working with natural and laser guide stars. The corrective shape of the deformable mirrors (DMs) is derived from an analytical algorithm