We present a near-infrared K n-band photometric study of edge-on galaxies with a box/ peanut-shaped `bulge'. The morphology of the galaxies is analysed using unsharp masking and fits to the vertical surface brightness profiles, and the results are compared to N-body simulations and orbital calculations of barred galaxies. Both theoretical

Comet Hale-Bopp defines a milestone event for cometary science: it is the first "really big" comet observed with modern equipment on the ground and from space and due to that; it is considered the new reference object in cometary sciences. At the beginning of a new era in spacecraft exploration of comets and five years after Hale-Bopp's perihelion

New Integral Field Spectroscopy of the central region of NGC 7331 reveals strong Hα emission in the well-known CO and HI ring of NGC 7331. The [NII]/Hα ratio indicates that a large scale stellar formation process is taken place at the ring in agreement with previous hypothesis about the exhaustion of gas in the inner to the ring region. The

We report on an observing campaign in 2001 March to monitor the brightness of the later arriving Q0957+561B image in order to compare with the previously published brightness observations of the (first-arriving) A image. The 12 participating observatories provided 3543 image frames, which we have analyzed for brightness fluctuations. From our

We have acquired new time series photometry of the two pulsating DB white dwarf stars KUV 05134+2605 and PG 1654+160 with the Whole Earth Telescope. Additional single-site photometry is also presented. We use all these data plus all available archival measurements to study the temporal behaviour of the pulsational amplitudes and frequencies of

We present the discovery of three new quasars at z>6 in ~ 1300 deg2 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data, J114816.64+525150.3 (z=6.43), J104845.05+463718.3 (z=6.23), and J163033.90+401209.6 (z=6.05). The first two objects have weak Lyα emission lines; their redshifts are determined from the positions of the Lyman break. They are only accurate