We show that the use of apodizing functions at the coronagraph Lyot plane may be useful for improving the image contrast of ground-based coronagraphs. An experimental set-up consisting of a tip-tilt mirror, a coronagraph and a low-noise EMCCD camera was implemented at the William Herschel Telescope. Images were taken in the I band, which meant that

Inhomogeneous plasmas and fluids contain energy stored in inhomogeneity and they naturally tend to relax into lower energy states by developing instabilities or by diffusion. But the actual amount of energy in such inhomogeneities has remained unknown. In the present work, the amount of energy stored in a density gradient is calculated for several

The details of bulge formation via collapse, mergers, secular processes or their interplay remain unresolved. To start answering this question and quantify the importance of distinct mechanisms, we mapped a sample of three galactic bulges using data from the integral field spectrograph WiFeS on the ANU's 2.3-m telescope in Siding Spring Observatory

The number of known very high energy (VHE) blazars is ˜50, which is very small in comparison to the number of blazars detected in other frequencies. This situation is a handicap for population studies of blazars, which emit about half of their luminosity in the γ-ray domain. Moreover, VHE blazars, if distant, allow for the study of the environment

We examine the stellar velocity dispersions (σ) of a sample of 48 galaxies, 35 of which are spirals, from the Palomar nearby galaxy survey. It is known that for ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and merger remnants, the σ derived from the near-infrared CO band heads is smaller than that measured from optical lines, while no discrepancy

We report the successful detection of the rare earth element Neodymium (Nd) in the high-resolution, H-band spectra from the SDSS III Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). Using the Nd II transition at 16058.014 angstroms, we have detected significant Nd enhancements in all stars observed by APOGEE belonging to the