These notes are a didactic overview of the non perturbative and background independent approach to a quantum theory of gravity known as loop quantum gravity. The definition of real connection variables for general relativity, used as a starting point in the program, is described in a simple manner. The main ideas leading to the definition of the

We describe the Very Small Array (VSA) and review the recent results on the angular power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) obtained in the Ka-band (ν ≈ 33 GHz) with this instrument. This array has covered an ℓ-range of 150 to 1500 with a relatively high resolution in ℓ compared to previous measurements at ℓ≥ 1000; this is achieved

The 4-m aperture Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is the next generation ground based solar telescope. In this paper we provide an overview of the ATST post-focus instrumentation. The majority of ATST instrumentation is located in an instrument Coude lab facility, where a rotating platform provides image de-rotation. A high order adaptive

We present a combined galaxy-quasar approach to template-fitting photometric redshift techniques and show the method to be a powerful one. The code (IMPZ) is presented, developed and applied to two spectroscopic redshift catalogues, namely the Isaac Newton Telescope Wide-Angle Survey ELAIS N1 and N2 fields and the Chandra Deep Field North. In

The code IAC-STAR is presented. It generates synthetic H-R and color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and is mainly aimed at star formation history studies in nearby galaxies. Composite stellar populations are calculated on a star-by-star basis, by computing the luminosity, effective temperature, and gravity of each star by direct bilogarithmic

We present deep Ka-band (ν~ 33 GHz) observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) made with the extended Very Small Array (VSA). This configuration produces a naturally weighted synthesized FWHM beamwidth of ~11 arcmin, which covers an l range of 300 to 1500. On these scales, foreground extragalactic sources can be a major source of