Changes in the Earth s climate depend most basically on changes in the Sun s output the Earth s reflectance and greenhouse gasses Using SoHO helioseismic data a meaningful lower limit is found on solar irradiance that implies the historical Sun can t be dimmer than the present Sun Further the global earthshine photometric data from BBSO are used

SUNRISE is a balloon-borne solar telescope with an aperture of 1m working in the UV VIS optical domain The main scientific goal of SUNRISE is to study the structure and dynamics of the magnetic field in the atmosphere of the Sun at high spatial resolution SUNRISE will provide diffraction-limited images of the photosphere and chromosphere with an

Lunar photometric observations are regularly taken from Big Bear Solar Observatory. The aim of these observations is to obtain the brightness ratio between the dark and bright side of the lunar disk, and to derive estimates of the Earth's albedo. Here, using the whole illuminated crescent of the Moon as our standard star, we have calibrated in flux

In this article we present the survey STREGA, that has been proposed as part of the VST GTO (VLT Survey Telescope Guarantee Time of Observation) that will be given to the INAF-OAC in exchange for the construction of the telescope (see Alcalàet al., this volume). This survey will cover an area of about 150 sq. deg., searching for the southern

The small and elusive Carina dSph still presents many open questions concerning its stellar populations and dynamical evolution. It presents a unique star formation history, with well separated episodes over a time of ˜10 Gyr. However, the complex star formation history does not seem to have caused a strong chemical evolution of its stellar content

We present Spitzer/IRS spectra of a small sample of galactic OHPNe. This is a rare class of transition sources displaying both radio continuum and OH maser emission at 1612 MHz. Our observations show that they are heavily obscured O-rich stars whose mid-infrared spectra are dominated by the simultaneous presence of strong and broad amorphous