Smart Focal Planes are devices that enable the efficient sampling of a telescope's focal plane to feed spectroscopic and imaging instruments. Examples are integral field units (fiber and image slicers), cryogenic beam manipulators, and MOEMS (micro-opto-electromechanical systems) such as miniature slit shutters. These technologies are critical in

The site selection for the future large European telescope is a key issue, which will be addressed within the Euorpean proposal to be submitted to be funded by the EECC within the ELT design studies proposal. The organization, working scheme and baseline frameworks have been discussed and planned and are summarized here. For the definition of the

The Observatorio Astronomico Nacional at San Pedro Martir is situated on the summit of the San Pedro Martir Sierra in the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, at 2800m above sea level. For as long as three decades, a number of groups and individuals have gathered extremely valuable data leading to the site characterization for astronomical

We present here the results of a search for new microquasars at low galactic latitudes, based on a cross-identification between the ROSAT all sky Bright Source Catalog (RBSC) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and follow-up observations. The results obtained up to now suggest that persistent/silent microquasars such as LS 5039 are rare objects in

The detection of optical counterparts of hot spots in radio galaxies has been a challenge in astrophysics since the 1960s. Being located at several 100 kpc away from the AGN, they represent the most striking sites of interaction between the AGN ejecta and the ambient inter-galactic medium. Particle acceleration is thought to drive their emission

We present the oxygen abundance determination for 90 HII regions in the inner parts of the grand design galaxy M101. The abundances were derived employing the P method (Pilyugin, 2001A&A...369..594P). A comparison is made with previous determinations using another calibration and direct measurements of electron temperature to derive the oxygen