We report on the discovery by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer of the black hole (BH) candidate Swift J1539.2-6227 and the subsequent course of an outburst beginning in 2008 November and lasting at least seven months. The source was discovered during normal observations with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope on 2008 November 25. An extended

High-resolution spectroscopy in the near-infrared could become the leading method for discovering extra-solar planets around very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. To help to achieve an accuracy of about 1 m/s, we are developing a gas cell which consists of a mixture of gases whose absorption spectral lines span all over the near-infrared region. We

Small amplitude oscillations are a commonly observed feature in prominences/filaments. These oscillations appear to be of local nature, are associated to the fine structure of prominence plasmas, and simultaneous flows and counterflows are also present. The existing observational evidence reveals that small amplitude oscillations, after excited

Not Available

We present the results of a search for cool white dwarfs in the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS). The UKIDSS LAS photometry was paired with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to identify cool hydrogen-rich white dwarf candidates by their neutral optical colors and blue near-infrared

We present new multiband photometry for the Galactic globular cluster IC 4499 extending well past the main-sequence turn-off in the U, B, V, R, I and DDO 51 bands. This photometry is used to determine that IC 4499 has an age of 12 ± 1 Gyr and a cluster reddening of E(B-V) = 0.22 ± 0.02. Hence, IC 4499 is coeval with the majority of Galactic