We report on ongoing RXTE observations of the X-ray transient MAXI J0556-332. This source was discovered on 2011 January 11 (ATel #3102) and has since been monitored on an almost daily basis with RXTE. A preliminary X-ray color analysis of ~470 ks of RXTE/PCA data reveals a somewhat chaotic pattern without a clear structure in the color-color (CD)

Aims: We analyse the oscillatory properties of resonantly damped transverse kink oscillations in two-dimensional prominence threads. Methods: The fine structures are modelled as cylindrically symmetric magnetic flux tubes with a dense central part with prominence plasma properties and an evacuated part, both surrounded by coronal plasma. The

A sounding-rocket program called the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) is proposed to be launched in the summer of 2014. CLASP will observe the solar chromosphere in Ly-alpha (121.567 nm), aiming to detect the linear polarization signal produced by scattering processes and the Hanle effect for the first time. The polarimeter of

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The technique and some preliminary results about the study of the luminosity function (LF) of Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) through gravitational lensing (GL) is presented. Clusters of galaxies, with suitably modeled gravitational lenses are observed using the tunable filters (TF) of the instrument OSIRIS at the GTC. The combination of these natural

A big challenge in solar and stellar physics in the coming years will be to decipher the magnetism of the solar outer atmosphere (chromosphere and corona) along with its dynamic coupling with the magnetic fields of the underlying photosphere. To this end, it is important to develop rigorous diagnostic tools for the physical interpretation of