We have analysed very high-quality HARPS and UVES spectra of 95 solar analogs, 24 hosting planets and 71 without detected planets, to search for any possible signature of terrestial planets in the chemical abundances of volatile and refractory elements with respect to the solar abundances. We demonstrate that stars with and without planets in this

We present initial results from a water-vapour monitoring campaign initiated in 1996. A certain amount of caution must still be applied to the interpretation of the water-vapour statistics as a large majority of the data have been taken in summer, or autumn. Continued monitoring is accumulating strong evidence of a seasonal effect, with typically

We present WeCAPP, a long term monitoring project searching for microlensing events towards M 31. Since 1997 the bulge of M 31 was monitored in two different wavebands with the Wendelstein 0.8 m telescope. In 1999 we extended our observations to the Calar Alto 1.23 m telescope. Observing simultaneously at these two sites we obtained a time coverage

We report the first results of a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program which performed WFPC2 multi-color imaging of a sample of A- and B-type supergiant stars in M31 and M33. This sample has previously been studied by us spectroscopically with the High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph (HIRES) on the 10m Keck-I Telescope. In particular, fits to the P

We present a detailed morphological, photometric, and kinematic analysis of two barred S0 galaxies with large, luminous inner disks inside their bars. We show that these structures, in addition to being geometrically disklike, have exponential profiles (scale lengths ~300-500 pc) distinct from the central, nonexponential bulges. We also find them

Bipolar planetary nebulae (PNe) are thought to result from binary star interactions and, indeed, tens of binary central stars of PNe have been found, in particular using photometric time-series that allow for the detection of post-common envelope systems. Using photometry at the NTT in La Silla we have studied the bright object close to the centre