We report here the first results of a program aimed at obtaining high signal to noise (up to ~ 500) optical spectroscopy of a large sample of BL Lac objects using ESO VLT+FORS1. New spectroscopic observations have been obtained for 31 objects, which allows us to obtain new redshift for 13 targets and provide better classification for others. In a

We report on ESO-VLT near-IR adaptive optics imaging of one radio-loud and two radio quiet quasars at z > 2. In the first case we are able to resolve the QSO and find that it is hosted by an elliptical of MK = -27.6. This result, though restricted to a single object, extends up to z=2.5 the finding that cosmic evolution of radio-loud hosts follows

Line-of-sight velocity fields in an irregular sunspot (NOAA 8990) have been determined from Stokes-I spectra of the line Fe I 630.15 nm, obtained with the La Palma Stokes Polarimeter at the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope on May 13, 2000. We show and discuss the resulting velocity maps and asymmetry of the Fe I line.

The coronal line region in AGN is an intermediate zone between the broad- and the narrow-line regions where lines with ionization potentials, IP >50 eV, are produced. Because these IP are not easily reachable in stars, coronal lines become unique tracers of the AGN activity. The coronal line region has so far remained unresolved as its typical size

We present VLT-FORS1 color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) reaching the oldest main-sequence turnoffs for three fields at two galactocentric distances in the Fornax dSph galaxy. We derive the star formation history (SFH) for each field through comparison with synthetic CMDs and show that the main epoch of star formation has extended to more recent epochs

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