Cygnus X-2 is one of the brightest and longest known X-ray sources. We present high-resolution optical spectroscopy of Cyg X-2 obtained over 4 yr, which gives an improved mass function of 0.69 +/- 0.03 Msolar (1 sigma ). In addition, we resolve the rotationally broadened absorption features of the secondary star for the first time, deriving a

The lag associated with the main peak of the cross-correlation function of the two light curves arriving from a double-imaged quasar is usually identified with the time delay between the components. However, short-timescale microlensing events can independently modify the light curve of each component, and when strong microlensing is present, the

Two-dimensional calculations of the hydrodynamics produced by nuclear starbursts, taking into consideration the accretion or infall of disk matter on to the heart of the starburst, are here shown to lead to stationary solutions that naturally account for the kpc-scale biconical X-ray and optically detected filamentary structure. The calculated

We report on an extensive analysis of the low-degree p-mode frequency shifts over Solar Cycle n(b {o}) 22 (1984--1995) based on continuous data taken at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife). Aside from the known good correlation between frequency shifts and solar activity indices, we have also investigated on short and long time-scales

A recent paper by King & Ritter (KR) proposed that the light curves of Soft X-ray Transients (SXTs) are dominated by the effect of irradiation of the accretion disc by the central X-rays. This prevents the onset of the cooling wave which would otherwise return the disc to the quiescent state, and so prolongs the outbursts beyond those in dwarf nova

Long slit spectrophotometry of 13 bipolar planetary nebulae has been used to study their physical and chemical properties. In each nebula, one to seven different spatial regions have been considered in order to search for possible abundance variations through the nebulae. We obtained the following main results: - within the errors, the He, O, and N