Context: We study the chromosphere of an active region of the Sun in the Hα line. Aims: The development of new instrumentation and new methods of data analysis allows to scrutinize the dynamics of the solar chromosphere with high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution. The observations we present shed light on some magneto-dynamic processes

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project for a large aperture (3-5 meters) ground-based telescope, to be located in the Canary Islands. EST will be optimized for studies of magnetic coupling between the deep photosphere and upper chromosphere. This will require diagnostics of the thermal, dynamic and magnetic properties of the plasma over

(Abridged) A variety of formation scenarios was proposed to explain the diversity of properties observed in bulges. Studying their intrinsic shape can help in constraining the dominant mechanism at the epochs of their assembly. The structural parameters of a magnitude-limited sample of 148 unbarred S0--Sb galaxies were derived in order to study the

We present EDiFiSE, a prototype instrument for the observation of high-contrast systems, combining an adaptive optics (AO) system and an equalized integral field unit (EIFU). The design of the AO system takes into account the statistical behaviour of the atmospheric turbulence structure at the Canary Islands (Spain) astronomical observatories

The site selection for the future European Large Telescope (E-ELT) is a key issue within the European proposal funded by the EC, within the "ELT Design Study" proposal. The organization, working scheme and baseline frameworks are reviewed. For the definition of the working package WP12000 "Site Characterization" important use has been done of

Large segmented mirrors require efficient co-phasing techniques in order to avoid the image degradation due to segments misalignment. DIPSI (Diffraction Image Phase Sensing Instrument) is an instrument developed by IAC, GRANTECAN and LAM. This instrument is being integrated in the Active Phasing Experiment (APE), aimed at testing different phasing