10199 Chariklo is the largest Centaur so far known. To investigate its surface composition and possible surface variations, spectroscopic observations have been carried out at the largest available telescopes. We obtained near-infrared spectra at ESO-VLT (Cerro Paranal, Chile) and TNG (La Palma, Spain) on April 2001 and March 2002, respectively

From a comparison of the different parameters of warped galaxies in the radio, and especially in the visible, we find that: a) No large galaxy (large mass or radius) has been found to have high amplitude in the warp, and there is no correlation of size/mass with the degree of asymmetry of the warp. b) The disc density and the ratio of dark to

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of the X-ray transient XTE J1859+226, obtained during outburst and its subsequent decay to quiescence. Both the X-ray and optical properties are very similar to those of well-studied black hole soft X-ray transients. We have detected three mini-outbursts, when XTE J1859+226 was approaching quiescence

R-band surface photometry is presented for 171 late-type dwarf and irregular galaxies. For a subsample of 46 galaxies B-band photometry is presented as well. We present surface brightness profiles as well as isophotal and photometric parameters including magnitudes, diameters and central surface brightnesses. Absolute photometry is accurate to 0.1

We present UBVRI light curves of BL Lacertae from May 2000 to January 2001, obtained by 24 telescopes in 11 countries. More than 15 000 observations were performed in that period, which was the extension of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) campaign originally planned for July-August 2000. The exceptional sampling reached allows one to follow

We study the far-infrared emission properties of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 based on IRAS maps and an ISOPHOT map at 180 μm. Based on the analysis of the light profiles, we have been able to identify three main structural components: an unresolved nuclear component, an exponential disk, and a kiloparsec-scale bar. In addition, we also