Related papers: A catalog of old globes in Spanish public collecti…
Sunspot catalogs are very useful for studying the solar activity of the recent past. In this context, a catalog covering more than three solar cycles made by the astronomers of the Madrid Astronomical Observatory in Spain (nowadays, the…
Globular clusters produce orders of magnitude more millisecond pulsars per unit mass than the Galactic disk. Since the first cluster pulsar was uncovered twenty years ago, at least 138 have been identified - most of which are binary…
Ancient instruments of high interest for research on the origin and diffusion of early scientific devices in the late XVI - early XVII centuries are reproduced in three paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder. We investigated the nature and the…
Astronomical and cosmological knowledge up to the dawn of modern science was profoundly embedded in myth, religion and superstition. Many of these inventions of the human mind remain today stored in different supports: medieval engravings,…
Following Columbus' voyages to the Americas, Castilian (Spanish) and Portuguese rulers engaged in heated geopolitical competition, which was eventually reconciled through a number of treaties that divided the world into two unequal…
A sunspot catalogue was maintained by the Astronomical Observatory of Valencia University (Spain) from 1920 to 1928. Here we present a machine-readable version of this catalogue (OV catalog or OVc), including a quality control analysis.…
We present a catalogue of 1715 early-type galaxies from the literature, spanning the luminosity range from faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies to giant elliptical galaxies. The aim of this catalogue is to be one of the most comprehensive and…
In the paper we will describe three instruments of particular historical and didactic interest belonging to the Historical Collection of Physics Instruments of Palermo University: a convex mirror most likely dating back to the early…
Globular clusters (GCs) are among the oldest and most luminous stellar systems in the Universe, offering unique insights into galaxy formation and evolution. While the physical processes behind their origin have long remained elusive, major…
We present the motivation, design and current status of the Open Cluster Chemical Abundances from Spanish Observatories survey (OCCASO). Using the high resolution spectroscopic facilities available at Spanish observatories, OCCASO will…
The Catalogue of Spacetimes is a collection of four-dimensional Lorentzian spacetimes in the context of the General Theory of Relativity (GR). The aim of the catalogue is to give a quick reference for students who need some basic facts of…
The superior resolution of HST and the light gathering power of large 8-10m class telescopes are now providing information on distant globular clusters (GCs) that is comparable to that obtained in early 1990s for Local Group systems. Here I…
The analysis of the density and brightness of big planets satellites, main asteroid belt objects, Kuiper belt objects and centaurs has been carried out as well as the analysis of suspected unseen satellites of the stars. According to the…
"El Cielo de Salamanca" ("The Sky of Salamanca") is a quarter-sphere-shaped vault 8.70 metres in diameter. It was painted sometime between 1480 and 1493 and shows five zodiacal constellations, three boreal and six austral. The Sun and…
Globular clusters are among the oldest structures in the Universe and they host today low-mass stars and no gas. However, there has been a time when they formed as gaseous objects hosting a large number of short-lived, massive stars. Many…
While graphical records of astronomical/meteorological events before telescopic observations are of particular interest, they have frequently undergone multiple copying and may have been modified from the original. Here, we analyze a…
Globular clusters are the oldest objects in the Galaxy whose age may be accurately determined. As such globular cluster ages provide the best estimate for the age of the universe. The age of a globular cluster is determined by a comparison…
Recent observational results on the globular cluster systems of spiral galaxies are summarized. Although the number of spirals with well-studied GCSs is still small, new studies promise to increase it rapidly in the next few years. New…
Old, digitized astronomical images taken before the human spacefaring age offer a unique view of the sky devoid of known artificial satellites. In this paper, we have carried out the first optical searches ever for non-terrestrial artifacts…
In the last decade we witness an advent of new types of dwarf stellar systems in cluding ultra-compact dwarfs, ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals, and exotic globular clusters, breaking the old simple paradigm for dwarf galaxies and globular…