Using the spectroscopic New York University Value-Added Galaxy Catalogue and the photometric photo-z catalogues of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we have explored the satellite distribution around ˜1000 massive (M⋆ ≳ 2 × 1011 M⊙) visually classified elliptical galaxies down to a satellite mass ratio of 1:400 (i.e. 5 × 108 ≲ Msat ≲ 2 ×

It has been claimed in the recent literature that a non-trivial relation between the mass of the most-massive star, mmax, in a star cluster and its embedded star cluster mass (the mmax - Mecl relation) is falsified by observations of the most-massive stars and the Hα luminosity of young star clusters in the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 4214. Here, it

EMIR is one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 meter telescope operating at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in

The QUIJOTE-CMB experiment (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife CMB experiment) is an ambitious project to obtain polarization measurements of the sky microwave emission in the 10 to 47 GHz range. With this aim, a pair of 2,5μm telescopes and three instruments are being sited at the Teide Observatory, in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). The first telescope and

We present an overview of and status report on the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). WEAVE principally targets optical ground-based follow up of upcoming ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field

We present results from a project focused on searching optical microvariabilty (also known as ``intra-night'' variability) in type 2 - obscured - quasars. Optical microvariability can be described as very small changes in the flux, typically in the order of hundredths of magnitude, which can be observed on timescales of hours. Such studies have