Binary/multiple properties provide clues to the formation of stars. In the AstraLux binary survey, we use the Lucky Imaging technique to search for companions to a large sample of young, nearby M dwarfs. We present results from observations of the first sub-sample, consisting of 124 M dwarfs in the southern sky.

Spectral energy distributions of six proto-planetary nebulae showing 21 and 30μ features were fit with models obtained from 1D radiative transfer code, taking FeO and MgS respectively are the carriers of the features. Atomic abundances of these carrier materials were derived and they are lower or comparable to their stellar photospheric values. This stregthens the possibility of these materials to become the carriers of their respective features.

We obtained a high-resolution CO map of IRAS 22272+5435 in the CO J = 2–1 line using CARMA. The target exhibits a second biggest angular size of the circumstellar molecular envelope among known 21 μm sources. In the preliminary results, we found that the CO properties of IRAS 22272+5435 is clearly different from those of IRAS 07134+1005, which is another well-investigated 21 μm source. For example, elongations seen in the mid-infrared and CO images are extended in mutually perpendicular directions, although in case of IRAS 07134+1005 the CO feature coincides well with the mid-infrared structure.

WEBDA (http://www.univie.ac.at/webda) is a site devoted to observational data of stellar clusters in the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is intended to provide a reliable presentation of the available data and knowledge about these objects. The success of WEBDA is documented by its worldwide usage and the related acknowledgements in the literature: more than 650 refereed publications within the last twelve years acknowledged its use. It collects all published data for stars in open clusters that may be useful either to determine membership, or to study the stellar content and properties of the clusters.

The database content includes astrometric data in the form of coordinates, rectangular positions, and proper motions, photometric data in the major systems in which star clusters have been observed, but also spectroscopic data like spectral classification, radial velocities, and rotational velocities. It also contains miscellaneous types of supplementary data like membership probabilities, orbital elements of spectroscopic binaries, and periods for different kinds of variable stars as well as an extensive bibliography. Several powerful tools help to plot, query and extract the data, which can be directly retrieved via http. At the time of writing, about four million individual measurements have been included in the database. The Star Clusters Young & Old Newsletter (SCYON), a bi-monthly newsletter devoted to star cluster research with about 600 subscribers, is hosted in parallel with the database.

We present the current and upcoming new interface and tools, which are needed to visualize and analyze the increasing amount of data from all-sky surveys, and deeper investigations of binary systems, low mass dwarfs, as well as planet-hosting stars.

The orbital angular momenta OAM (J) of detached binaries (including both cool and hot binaries) were estimated and nine subgroups were formed according to their OAM (J) distribution. The mean kinematical ages of all subgroups have been estimated by using their space velocity distributions and, thus, the age dependent variations of the mean OAM (J), orbital period (P), and total mass (M) of all subgroups were investigated. It was discovered that: i) The orbital period of detached binaries with radiative components decrease very slowly during the main sequence (MS) evolution. It is interesting that the large amount of mass loss is almost balanced by the OAM loss, and not much change in the orbital periods is observed. ii) The nuclear evolution of radiative components beyond the MS initiates the increase of the periods until the components have convective upper layers, i.e. until they become later than F5 IV, and the system becomes a cool binary with sub-giant or giant components. iii) The large co-rotating distance of the magnetically-driven wind in cool binaries (CAB) carries out a large amount of OAM and then the periods of such binaries decrease significantly, and the orbits shrink until another effect such as mass transfer dominates the period changes.

We present individual distances to three PNe: NGC 6537, NGC 6781 and NGC 7027, determined by the extinction-distance method. These objects are part of a larger sample (35) of PNe that we observed at ORM. In order to apply this method, and to obtain accurate distances, we determined the spectral type of 40 to 60 stars in the line of sight of each PNe. This implied the necessity of classifying few thousands of stellar spectra with S/N ratio between 10 and 60. To solve such need we developed an ANN system to perform automatic spectral classification which could classify spectra with S/N ratio as low as 20 with an accuracy better than 2 spectral subtypes. In this poster we compare the accuracy of such distances with previous distance determinations using other methods. We conclude that it is possible to use this method to obtain the distance of a large number of PNe with better precision.

We investigate the infrared emission bands from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe). PAHs in PNe are assumed to be in transition from circumstellar to interstellar PAHs. We select 15 evolved PNe taking account of effective stellar temperatures and obtain infrared spectra of PNe from AKARI (2.5–5 μm) and Spitzer (5–14 μm) observations. Their evolutionary phase is estimated using [SIV]10.51/[NeII]12.81. We find that the near-infrared PAH bands are significantly enhanced along with stellar evolution sequence. We also find that the ratio of 3.4 to 3.3 μm bands is enhanced. The enhancement might indicate some chemical processing, such as hydrogenation, on small PAHs.

It is well known that stars with orbiting giant planets have a higher metallic content than stars without detected planets. In addition, we have found that solar-type stars with planets present an extra Li depletion when compared with field stars. On the other hand, Be needs a greater temperature to be destroyed, so we may find such a relation in cooler stars, whose convective envelopes are deep enough to carry material to layers where Be can be burned. We present Li and Be abundances for an extensive sample of stars with and without detected planets, covering a wide range of effective temperatures (4700-6500 K) with the aim of studying possible differences between the abundances of both groups. The processes that take place in the formation of planetary systems may affect the mixing of material inside their host stars and hence the abundances of light elements.

We present an observational study of three oint-ymmetric lanetary ebulae (PS-PNe): PC 19, He 2-429, and He 1-1, whose kinematics has been previously reported in the literature. The study includes an analysis of physical conditions and chemical abundances. We found that the abundances of He 2-429 and He 1-1 correspond to a Peimbert Type I PNe while those of PC 19 are in good agreement with a Type IV PN. Kinematic evidence derived from proper motion measurement support PC 19 classification and suggest that the progenitor star was a low-mass low-metallicity member of the galactic halo population.

Binary systems with compact components and some newly discovered systems with relatively short orbital periods are studied as gravitational-wave sources. The gravitational wave amplitudes of these systems have been compared with the limit of gravitational wave interferometers (e.g. LISA, LIGO, and VIRGO).

It is well established that PNe are not thermally homogeneous, beyond what chemically homogeneous photoionization models predict. To discriminate between the different scenarios proposed in the literature, we have determined the temperature based on He I lines for a dozen PNe. We compare these determinations with those derived from the Balmer continua. We find that the He I temperatures agree with the Balmer temperatures and that both are lower than those derived from CELs; suggesting that most PNe are chemically homogeneous.

The ionizing star of the planetary nebula NGC 2392 is too cool to explain the high excitation of the nebular shell, and an additional ionizing source is necessary. We use photoionization modeling to estimate the temperature and luminosity of the putative companion. Our results show it is likely to be a very hot (Teff ≃ 250 kK), dense white dwarf. If the stars form a close binary, they may merge within a Hubble time, possibly producing a Type Ia supernova.

A sample of about 160 speckle binary stars was observed with the Keck I telescope and its Échelle HIRES spectrograph over the years 2003-2007 in an effort to detect substellar and planetary companions to components of binary and multiple star systems. This data set was supplemented with the data obtained at the TNG telescope equipped with the SARG Échelle spectrograph over the years 2006-2007. The high-resolution (R = 65000 for HIRES and R = 86000 for SARG) and high signal-to-noise (typically 75-150) spectra were used to derive radial velocities of the components of the observed speckle binaries. Here, we present a summary of this effort, which includes the discovery of new triple star systems and improved orbital solutions of a few known binaries.

We have found a strong correlation between small filling factors and large t2 values in planetary nebulae. We have also found that in general the filling factor for Type I PNe is smaller than for Type II PNe. These results imply that the abundance correction due to temperature inhomogeneities in general is larger for Type I PNe than for Type II PNe. This difference permits to reproduce the expected abundance difference between PNe of Type I and II predicted by Galactic chemical evolution models.

A preliminary VLT-UVES spectrum of NGC 6302 (Casassus et al. 2002, MN), which hosts one of the hottest PN nuclei known (Teff ~ 220000 K; Wright et al. 2011, MN), has been recently analysed by means of X-SSN, a spectrum synthesis code for nebulae (Morisset and Péquignot). Permitted recombination lines from highly-ionized species are detected/identified for the first time in a PN, and some of them probably for the first time in (astro)physics. The need for a homogeneous, high signal-to-noise UVES spectrum for NGC 6302 is advocated.

We propose a new approach for a solution of the planet transit problem that is based on numerical calculation of integrals. The paper presents our method for the case of linear limb-darkening law and orbital inclination i = 90°, and illustrates the work of the code PTS written on the basis of our approach.

We have selected a group of 85 evolved planetary nebulae to study their kinematic characteristic based on spatially resolved, long-slit echelle spectroscopy. The data have been drawn from the San Pedro Mártir Kinematic Catalogue of PNe. The aim is to characterize in detail the global kinematics of PNe at advanced stages of evolution with the largest sample of homogenous data used to date for this purpose. The results reveal groups that share kinematic and photo-ionization characteristics of the nebular shell at the different late stages under study. The expansion velocities are typically larger than seen in earlier evolutionary stages, with the largest velocities occurring in objects with very weak or absent [N II]λλ6548, 6584 emission line. These results shall serve to be compared to predictions of hydrodynamical models.

Black hole X-ray binaries with large mass ratios and short orbital periods are expected to change their orbital period due to magnetic breaking, mass loss, gravitational radiation, or mass evaporation of the black hole in alternative descriptions of gravity, like in braneworld gravity scenarios.

The black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480, consisting of a late-type secondary star orbiting a ~ 8 M⊙ black hole in a 4.1-hr period, offers a unique opportunity to test these models. New spectroscopic data allow us to determine the time of the inferior conjunction of the secondary star at different epochs. Observations over a 10 year span will provide constraints on the rate of any orbital period change.

We present here a preliminary radial velocity curve obtained with the 10.4m GTC telescope equipped with OSIRIS medium-resolution spectrograph, as part of an ongoing long-term program to study the orbital period evolution in this binary.

We use more than three decades-long photometry to study the activity patterns on the two fast-rotating subgiant components in EI Eri (G5IV) and V711 Tau (K1IV). From yearly mean rotational periods from the light curves, we find that EI Eri, with well-measured solar-type differential rotation, always has spots from the equator to high latitudes. The measured differential rotation of V711 Tau is controversial, and in any case is very small. The spots on the K1IV star in V711 Tau seem to be tidally locked. The physical parameters of the two systems are similar, with one remarkable difference: EI Eri has a low mass M4-5 dwarf companion, whereas V711 Tau has a G5V star in the system, thus their mass centers are in very different positions. This may modify the whole internal structure of the active stars, causing marked differences in their surface features.

We present the morphology and linear polarization of the 22-GHz H2O masers in the high-velocity outflow of two post-AGB sources, d46 (IRAS 15445–5449) and b292 (IRAS 18043–2116). The observations were performed using The Australia Telescope Compact Array. Different levels of saturated maser emission have been detected for both sources. We also present the mid-infrared image of d46 overlaid with the distribution of the maser features that we have observed in the red-shifted lobe of the bipolar structure. The relative position of the observed masers and a previous radio continuum observation suggests that the continnum is produced along the blue-shifted lobe of the jet. It is likely due to synchrontron radiation, implying the presence of a strong magnetic field in the jet. The fractional polarization levels measured for the maser features of d46 indicate that the polarization vectors are tracing the poloidal component of the magnetic field in the emitting region. For the H2O masers of b292 we have measured low levels of fractional linear polarization. The linear polarization in the H2O maser region of this source likely indicates a dominant toroidal or poloidal magnetic field component.