Related papers: Massive Variability Searches: The Past, Present an…

The MACHO Project generated two-color photometric lightcurves for 73 million stars in the LMC, SMC, and the galactic bulge during its 8 years of observing. This photometry, along with all images and a catalog of LMC variable stars, is now…

Recent all-sky and large-area astronomical surveys and their catalogued data over the whole range of electromagnetic spectrum are reviewed, from Gamma-ray to radio, such as Fermi-GLAST and INTEGRAL in Gamma-ray, ROSAT, XMM and Chandra in…

VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is an ESO public near-infrared variability survey of the Galactic bulge and an adjacent area of the southern mid-plane. It will produce a deep atlas in the ZYJHKs filters, and a Ks-band time-series…

The gravitational microlensing as a unique astrophysical tool can be used for studying the atmosphere of stars thousands of parsec far from us. This capability results from the bending of light rays in the gravitational field of a lens…

Context. Discovery of new variability classes in large surveys using multivariate statistics techniques such as clustering, relies heavily on the correct understanding of the distribution of known classes as point processes in parameter…

OGLE and other projects are likely to discover first stellar mass black holes and the first planets through gravitational lensing in the next year or two. It is important to have follow-up projects ready, using diverse observing methods.…

Variable stars play a very important role in our understanding of the Milky Way and the universe. In recent years, many survey projects have generated a large amount of photometric data, necessitating classifiers that can quickly identify…

Low-mass objects are ubiquitous in our Galaxy. Their low temperature provides them with complex atmospheres characterised by the presence of strong molecular absorption bands which, together with their faintness, have made their accurate…

The Vista Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) ESO Public Survey is an ongoing time-series, near-infrared (IR) survey of the Galactic bulge and an adjacent portion of the inner disk, covering 562 square degrees of the sky, using ESO's…

Galactic stars belonging to the Of?p category are all strongly magnetic objects exhibiting rotationally modulated spectral and photometric changes on timescales of weeks to years. Five candidate Of?p stars in the Magellanic Clouds have been…

We present new version of the OGLE-II catalog of eclipsing binary stars detected in the Small Magellanic Cloud, based on Difference Image Analysis catalog of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds containing data collected from 1997 to…

We describe the public ESO near-IR variability survey (VVV) scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. The survey will take 1929 hours of observations with the 4-metre VISTA…

Models of our galaxy based on dynamical observations predict a spheroid component much heavier than accounted for by direct measurements of star counts and high velocity stars. If, as first suggested by Caldwell and Ostriker, this…

We investigate the possibility of using globular clusters as targets for microlensing searches. Such searches will be challenging and require more powerful telescopes than now employed, but are feasible in the 0 future. Although expected…

Despite their rarity, massive stars dominate the ecology of galaxies via their strong, radiatively-driven winds throughout their lives and as supernovae in their deaths. However, their evolution and subsequent impact on their environment…

Star formation is a multi-scale, multi-physics problem ranging from the size scale of molecular clouds ($\sim$10s pc) down to the size scales of dense prestellar cores ($\sim$0.1 pc) that are the birth sites of stars. Several physical…

We present 97 QSO candidates in 48 Galactic Bulge fields of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment II (OGLE-II) covering about 11 square degrees, which are selected via their variability. We extend light curves of variable objects…

Automatic classification of variability is now possible with tools like neural networks. Here, we present two neural networks for the identification of microlensing events -- the first discriminates against variable stars and the second…

We review the recent impact of microlensing projects on our understanding of pulsating red giant stars. Discussed are red giant stars' pulsation properties (period--luminosity relations, period changes, mode switchings), Red Giant Branch…

We present a comprehensive analysis of the photometric variability of (presumably single) nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet (WN) stars in the Magellanic Clouds, using long-term observations from the OGLE survey. Our sample comprises 47 stars with no…