VISIR, the VLT Imager and Spectrograph for the Mid-Infrared is a multi-mode instrument, featuring also a high resolution Echelle spectrograph with a spectral resolving power of ≈30 000 or 10 km s−1 at ν ≈ 30 000 GHz (λ ≈ 10 μm). A limited long-slit mode as well as a general cross-dispersed mode are available. The Echelle grating is illuminated with a 200 mm diameter collimated beam. Cross-dispersion is achieved by a pair of grisms in the pre-slit optics. The entire frequency interval corresponding to the “10 μ m-window” from 22 400 to 39 500 GHz is fully accessible, albeit sequentially. This interval contains a multitude of fundamental molecular rotational-vibrational bands such as SiO, OH−, H2O, NH3, CH4 and many other hydro-carbonates. Since its commissioning in April 2004, VISIR has been plagued by artifacts introduced from its detector. The cross-dispersed mode is especially handicapped, as it is the most demanding mode for dynamic range of illumination. Now an ambitious upgrade with a pair of newly developed 1k2 As:Si detectors is underway, which will fully resurrect the spectroscopic mode. This will also increase the frequency interval accessible in one exposure by 240% while changing from critical to 3-pixel sampling. Even in the absence of extra spectral features this increase is quite valuable for absorption line spectroscopy, as the limiting factor in analysis often is the definition of the photospheric continuum.

Accurate synthetic telluric spectra are required for efficient use of telescope time, in particular, with large telescopes and high-resolution NIR spectroscopy: (i) In the preparation of observations, are the telluric features at the same wavelength as spectroscopic features of scientific interest? Since water vapor is the molecule whose abundance varies most in the atmosphere, what values of precipitable water vapor are suitable to carry out successful observations? Are the observations of a telluric star required? Or better, can telluric features in the science spectrum be accurately represented by an appropriate synthetic spectrum? This point is also very important in the planning of telescope time, as observations of a telluric star may sometimes take longer than the one of the science target. (ii) In the analysis of the observations, how do telluric lines affect the scientifically interesting features in the observed spectrum? Is it possible to recover the useful information when telluric star observations could not be obtained, do not have sufficient SNR, or suffer from a significant change in instrumental or observing conditions?

We present results of a project aimed at establishing a set of 12 spectro-photometric standards over a wide wavelength range from 320 to 2500 nm. Currently no such set of standard stars covering the near-IR is available. Our strategy is to extend the useful range of existing well-established optical flux standards (Oke 1990, Hamuy et al. 1992, 1994) into the near-IR by means of integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI at the VLT combined with state-of-the-art white dwarf stellar atmospheric models (TMAP, Holberg et al. 2008). As a solid reference, we use two primary HST standard white dwarfs GD71 and GD153 and one HST secondary standard BD+17 4708. The data were collected through an ESO “Observatory Programme” over ~40 nights between February 2007 and September 2008.

The advantages of a high altitude, dry site for ground-based astronomy at infrared (IR) wavelengths are well-known: the lower temperature and pressure associated with increased altitude reduce the emissivities of both atmosphere and telescope, and a lower atmospheric absorption improves the transmission of IR radiation. The next generation of IR instruments under development (for ELTs) will open up a new discovery space, particularly in high-resolution (HR) spectroscopy, which will not have a space-based counterpart and has proven to be a powerful tool for studying all stages of stellar evolution (e.g. (e.g. Jaffle et al., 2003). I present here a summary of quantitative work into transmission-dependent aspects of HR IR spectroscopy at high and low altitudes.

Water vapour is the principle source of opacity at infrared wavelengths in the earth's atmosphere. Measurements of atmospheric water vapour serve two primary purposes when considering operation of an observatory: long-term monitoring of precipital water vapour (PWV) is useful for characterizing potential observatory sites, and real-time monitoring of PWV is useful for optimizing use, in particular for mid-IR observations.

Working in collaboration with industry, the University of Sydney, the Anglo-Australian Observatory and Macquarie University are developing new ‘astrophotonic’ solutions to problems in astronomical instrumentation. A key first step involves overcoming the limitations imposed by multimode (MM) optical fibres that have been used by astronomers for many years to transport or reformat light from the telescope focus to an optical spectrograph. These large-core MM fibres maximise light into an astronomical instrument but at the expense of propagating many unpolarized modes. Until recently, this has deterred the use of more complex in-fibre processing of the light since this is typically limited to single-mode (SM) propagation. A MM to SM converter, known as a ‘photonic lantern’, was first demonstrated by Leon-Saval et al. (2005). If the number of transverse modes equals the number of SM fibres, and if a gradual and adiabatic transition between the MM fiber and the ensemble of SM fibres can be achieved, lossless coupling can take place in either propagation direction. Noordegraaf et al. (2009) demonstrated an efficient 1 x 7 photonic lantern (1 MM input and 7 SM outputs) for the first time.

Atomic spectra in the infrared and sub-mm wavelength regions can be divided into two broad categories: electric dipole-allowed transitions, and forbidden lines due to transitions within the ground term or between low-lying levels of the same parity. Both are of potential importance in the interpretation of astrophysical spectra. Allowed transitions can provide diagnostic information for stellar photospheres, particularly for elements that are not accessible in the visible region. Electric-dipole forbidden lines are important diagnostics of low-density plasmas, such as nebulae and the interstellar medium. In order to interpret astrophysical spectra, accurate atomic data are required. This paper summarizes the techniques for measuring atomic data and lists the most important compilations and databases.

This contribution focuses on the study of ‘cool’ sources with surface temperatures in the range of about 500-4000 K. In this temperature range spectra are dominated by strong molecular absorption and the tools of modern chemical physics can be applied to compute the molecular opacities needed to simulate the observed spectral energy distributions. (See Bernath (2005) for an introduction to molecular spectroscopy including line intensities and Bernath (2009) for a recent astronomical review article.)

Brown dwarfs (hereafter BDs) are formed, like stars, by interstellar cloud collapse, but attaining masses of less then 0.075 M⊙ (Baraffe et al. 1998), i.e. too low core temperatures (< 3.5 × 106 K) to stabilize the nuclear burning of the hydrogen PP chain. Therefore, even the most massive BDs begin cooling after some 109 yrs. However, for masses above 0.06 M⊙, core temperatures become hotter than the lithium burning temperature (2.4 x 106 K). All BDs above 0.013 M⊙ (13 MJup) reach core temperatures above the 1.0 x 106 K necessary to burn deuterium from about 107 yrs. The IAU has adopted the definition of the planetary regime as objects having masses below the deuterium burning conditions. But BDs are likely to form well below this limit into the planetary mass regime down to some 5 MJup. It is therefore convenient, in the absence of indices on their formation mechanisms, to call them planetary mass objects or planemos.

Brown dwarfs (hereafter BDs) are of particular interest because of their extremely low-temperature atmospheres for comparison with atmospheres of giant planets. Aiming to obtain clues to understand the formation and disappearance of dust clouds and molecular abundances in BD photospheres, we conducted an observation programme of space-borne near-infrared spectroscopy of bright BDs with the Infrared Camera (IRC) on-board AKARI.

The binary fraction in the sub-stellar regime is a topic of discussion. The lower masses of ultra cool dwarfs (UCDs) with respect to the other stars make them even more important because a measurable effect on their radial velocity (RV) or luminosities can be caused by extremely low mass companions. Some UCDs in young star forming regions are bright enough to be studied with existing high resolution instrumentation. The UCDs are intrinsically faint in the optical and the optical RV measurements are affected by “rotationally modulated inhomogeneous surface features” that can mimic a companion, while the near-infrared (NIR) RVs are less prone to them. Therefore, we decided to monitor the RV of six UCDs in the NIR. Blake et al. (2007) demonstrated RV measurement accuracy of 300-600 m s−1 in the NIR using telluric calibration.

The solar “COmosphere” is an enigmatic region of cold gas (temperatures as low as ~3500 K) coexisting in the low chromosphere with plasma much hotter (~7000 K). This zone probably consists of patchy clouds of cool gas, seen readily in off-limb emissions of CO 4667 nm lines, threaded by hot gas entrained in long-lived magnetic filaments as well as transient shock fronts. The COmosphere was not anticipated in classical 1D models of the solar outer atmosphere, but is quite at home in the contemporary 3D highly dynamic view, which one might call the Magnetic Complexity Zone.

Post-AGB (pAGB) objects are low to intermediate initial mass (≤8 M⊙) objects that have terminated normal nuclear burning and as a result are undergoing rapid evolution toward the white dwarf sequence. In classical pAGB objects evolution is to hotter effective temperatures at roughly constant luminosity. However, there are also several classes of pAGB objects that have revived nuclear burning after approaching or being on the white dwarf sequence. These include objects with delayed final helium shell flashes (e.g. Sakurai's star) and white dwarf mergers (e.g. R CrB stars). Binary evolution plays a critical role in many of these systems. A group of pAGB supergiants with large infrared excesses are suspected to be binaries that have undergone common envelope evolution. Further details on many of these objects can be found in reviews, see for instance Van Winckel (2003) and Herwig (2005).

The existing information on asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and post-AGB objects from FIR and submm spectroscopy is still scarce. Observations from the ground are often very difficult to calibrate and show low S/N ratios. However, we expect to obtain in the near future an impressive amount of high-quality data, from the Herschel space telescope. ALMA is also expected to provide high-quality maps of submm lines.

Red supergiants (RSGs) experience slow, intensive mass loss up to 10−4M⊙ yr−1. Despite its importance not only in stellar evolution but also in the chemical enrichment of the interstellar matter, the mass loss mechanism in RSGs is not well understood. A better understanding of the outer atmosphere of RSGs is a key to unraveling the mass-loss mechanism in these stars. High spatial resolution observations in IR molecular lines are very effective for probing the physical properties of the inhomogeneous outer atmosphere. We observed the prototypical RSG Betelgeuse (M1-2Ia–Ibe) in the CO first overtone lines with the spectro-interferometric instrument AMBER at the ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) using baselines of 16, 32, and 48 m. Details of the observations and the modeling are described in Ohnaka et al. (2009). The high-spectral (R = 4800–12000) and high-spatial resolution (9 mas) provided with AMBER allowed us to study inhomogeneities seen in the individual CO first overtone lines. Our AMBER observations represent the highest spatial resolution achieved for Betelgeuse, corresponding to five resolution elements over its stellar disk. The AMBER visibilities and closure phases in the K-band continuum can be reasonably fitted by a uniform disk with a diameter of 43.19 ± 0.03 mas or a limb-darkening disk with 43.56 ± 0.06 mas and a limb-darkening parameter of (1.2 ± 0.07) × 10−1. On the other hand, our AMBER data in the CO lines reveal salient inhomogeneous structures. The visibilities and phases (closure phases, as well as differential phases representing asymmetry in lines with respect to the continuum) measured within the CO lines show that the blue and red wings originate in spatially distinct regions over the stellar disk, indicating an inhomogeneous velocity field that makes the star appear different in the blue and red wings. Our AMBER data in the CO lines can be roughly explained by a simple model, in which a patch of CO gas is moving outward or inward with velocities of 10–15 km s−1, while the CO gas in the remaining region in the atmosphere is moving in the opposite direction at the same velocities. These velocities compare favorably with the macroturbulent velocities of 10–20 km s−1 derived by spectroscopic analyses. Also, the AMBER data are consistent with the presence of warm molecular layers (so-called MOLsphere) extending to ~1.4–1.5 R* with a CO column density of ~ 1 × 1020 cm−2. However, the present data are insufficient to constrain the surface pattern uniquely or to reconstruct an image. Our AMBER observations of Betelgeuse are the first spatially resolved study of the macroturbulence in a stellar atmosphere (photosphere and possibly MOLsphere as well) other than the Sun. The spatially resolved CO gas motion is likely to be related to convective motion in the upper atmosphere or intermittent mass ejections in clumps or arcs.

Although cataclysmic variables (CVs) come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, the essential ingredients are a compact primary star and a Roche-lobe-filling secondary. In most cases the cool component is a main sequence dwarf, and the compact component a white dwarf (WD). Material from the cool component flows through the inner Lagrangian point via an accretion disc onto the surface of the WD; the flow near the WD is significantly affected by the strength of the magnetic field the WD may have (see Warner for a review of CVs). CVs are characterised by regular eruptions, ranging in energetics and frequency from ‘dwarf novae’, in which eruptions of amplitude ~3-4 mag in the visual occur every few days to weeks, to classical novae (CNe) in which the eruption is explosive, due to thermonuclear runaway (TNR) in material accreted on the surface of the WD (see Bode & Evans for a review of CNe).

The study of Globular Cluster (GC) stellar populations (SPs) addresses fundamental astrophysical questions ranging from stellar structure, evolution and dynamics, to Galaxy formation. Indeed, they represent: i) fossils from the remote and violent epoch of Galaxy formation, ii) test particles for studying Galaxy dynamics and stellar dynamical model, and iii) fiducial templates for studying integrated light from distant stellar systems. In particular, high resolution spectroscopy of GC SPs provides abundance patterns which are crucial for understanding the formation and chemical enrichment time–scale of the host galaxy. Here the major results on Galactic GCs based on high-resolution near-infrared (near–IR) spectroscopy are briefly reviewed. Optical and IR spectroscopy are complementary tools to investigate SPs in different environments, the latter being more suitable in the case of moderately–high extinction regions (AV≥2) and high metallicity.

Molecules and dust are formed in and around the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and supernovae (SNe), and are ejected into the interstellar medium (ISM) through the stellar wind. The dust and gas contain elements newly synthesised in stars, thus, dying stars play an important role in the chemical enrichment of the ISM of galaxies. However, quantitative analysis of molecules and dust in these stars had been difficult beyond our Galaxy. The high sensitivity instruments on-board the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST; Werner et al. 2004) have enabled us to study dust and molecules in these stars in nearby galaxies. Nearby galaxies have a wide range in metallicity, thus the impact of the metallicity on dust and gas production can be studied. This study will be useful for chemical evolution of galaxies from low to high metallicity.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) launched 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) under the theme, The Universe, Yours to Discover. IYA2009 marked the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical observation through a telescope by Galileo Galilei. It has been, and still is, a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, with a strong emphasis on education, public engagement and the involvement of young people, with events at national, regional and global levels throughout the whole of 2009. UNESCO endorsed IYA2009 and the United Nations proclaimed the year 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy on 20 December 2007. These proceedings aim to give a brief account of IYA2009, from its inception to the present and how its legacy will influence the future of astronomy communication on a planet-wide scale.