WEBDA (http://www.univie.ac.at/webda) is a site devoted to observational data of stellar clusters in the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is intended to provide a reliable presentation of the available data and knowledge about these objects. The success of WEBDA is documented by its worldwide usage and the related acknowledgements in the literature: more than 650 refereed publications within the last twelve years acknowledged its use. It collects all published data for stars in open clusters that may be useful either to determine membership, or to study the stellar content and properties of the clusters.

The database content includes astrometric data in the form of coordinates, rectangular positions, and proper motions, photometric data in the major systems in which star clusters have been observed, but also spectroscopic data like spectral classification, radial velocities, and rotational velocities. It also contains miscellaneous types of supplementary data like membership probabilities, orbital elements of spectroscopic binaries, and periods for different kinds of variable stars as well as an extensive bibliography. Several powerful tools help to plot, query and extract the data, which can be directly retrieved via http. At the time of writing, about four million individual measurements have been included in the database. The Star Clusters Young & Old Newsletter (SCYON), a bi-monthly newsletter devoted to star cluster research with about 600 subscribers, is hosted in parallel with the database.

We present the current and upcoming new interface and tools, which are needed to visualize and analyze the increasing amount of data from all-sky surveys, and deeper investigations of binary systems, low mass dwarfs, as well as planet-hosting stars.

We build composite spectra at z ≤ 0.5 and z > 0.5 from the 3 year SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS) VLT spectral sample and study their differences around maximum light. We use 93 spectra near maximum of confirmed SNe Ia observed at the VLT between 2003 and 2006 as part of the 3 first years of operation of the SNLS. We find differences in the absorption depth of some intermediate mass elements (Ca ii, Si ii). Average stretches of observed distributions are 0.975 ± 0.016 and 0.983 ± 0.014 for the z ≤ 0.5 and z > 0.5 sample respectively. We use the A+B model of Scannapieco & Bildsten (2005) to interpret these results in terms of a possible demographic evolution.

The Be stars are still a big unknown in respect to the origin and geometry of the circumstellar disk around the star. Program shellspec is designed to solve the simple radiative transfer along the line of sight in three-dimensional moving media. Our goal was to develop an effective method to search in parameter space, which can allow us to find a good estimate of the physical parameters of the disk. We also present here our results for Be star 60 Cyg using the modified code.

Optical and near-infrared observations of novae give us useful information for understanding the diversity of nova eruptions. Classical nova V1723 Aql was discovered by F. Kabashima and K. Nishiyama on 2010 September 11. We have conducted photometric and spectroscopic observations of V1723 Aql in both optical and near-infrared (NIR) wavelength regions since its discovery. The V-band decline time by 2 mag after the maximum, t2, was ~12 d. The apparent Fe II emission lines were also seen in the optical spectra. The Rc- and Ic-band light curves exhibited rapid declines (0.16 mag d−1 in Rc) 20 days after the visual maximum, while the NIR (J, H, and Ks) showed slow decline rates (~0.07 mag d−1). This rapid reddening suggests that dust particles formed during the very early phase of the expansion in V1723 Aql.

Recent studies of the Algol-type binary RY Per presented strong evidence that there is an accretion disk around the primary in the system. We used new UBV photometry from Hvar Observatory and the BINSYN software package in order to determine the basic parameters of the disk. The search for the best parameter set was performed with a fully automated steepest descent method. The resulting disk is large and visible at all orbital phases. Somewhat surprising is the large mass transfer rate which should be tied with, currently unreported, secular period changes.

Production of multicharge ions due to generation of hot expanding plasma blobs, short-living “compound particles”, at high-velocity collisions between dust grains of a planetary nebula and dust particles of the interstellar medium is analytically considered. Dependence of the multiplicity of charge of produced ions on the relative velocity of colliding dust particles is determined.

In this talk, we review the basic assumptions and physics covered by classical 1D LTE model atmospheres. We will focus on ATLAS and MARCS models of F-G-K stars and describe what resources are available through the web, both in terms of codes and model-atmosphere grids. We describe the advances made in hydrodynamical simulations of convective stellar atmospheres with the CO5BOLD code and what grids and resources are available, with a prospect of what will be available in the near future.

We highlight results from a series of investigations into modeling spectra of core-collapse supernovae (SNe). We have explored the accuracy of the expanding-photosphere method, and found that it can be used to obtain distances to Type IIP SNe with an accuracy of ≲10%. We confirm the result of Utrobin and Chugai (2005) that time-dependent terms must be included in the statistical equilibrium equations in order to model Hi line evolution in Type II SNe, and show that time-dependent terms influence other spectral features (e.g., He i lines). We have initiated a study of polarization signatures from aspherical but axially-symmetric Type II SN ejecta. Hillier and Li acknowledge support from STScI theory grant HST-AR-11756.01.A and NASA theory grant NNX10AC80G. Dessart acknowledges financial support from grant PIRG04-GA-2008-239184.

Thanks to SAURON integral-field observations we uncovered the planetary nebulae (PNe) populations inhabiting the central and nuclear regions of our galactic neighbours M32 and M31, respectively, and discuss the significant differences between their corresponding PNe luminosity functions in light of the properties of their parent stellar populations. In particular, we conclude that the lack of bright PNe in the nuclear regions of M31 is likely linked to the nearly Solar value for the stellar metallicity, consistent with previous suggestions that a larger metallicity would bias the horizontal-branch (HB) populations toward bluer colors, leading to fewer red HB stars capable of producing PNe and more blue HB stars that instead could contribute to the far-UV flux observed in metal-rich early-type galaxies and, incidentally, in the nucleus of M31.

We present a new observational project to study the hierarchical triple stellar system Algol, concentrating on the semidetached eclipsing binary at the heart of the system. Over 140 high-resolution and high-S/N spectra have been secured, of which 80 are from FIES at the Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma, and the remainder were obtained with BOES at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory in Korea. All three components were successfully detected by the method of spectral disentangling, which yields the individual spectra of the three stars and also high-quality spectroscopic elements for both the inner and outer orbits. We present a detailed abundance study for the mass-accreting component in the inner orbit, which holds information on the history of mass transfer in the close inner binary system. We also reveal the atmospheric parameters and chemical composition of the tertiary component in the outer orbit.

We present chemical evolution models for the dwarf irregular NGC 6822, using chemical abundances of Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and HII regions and also the mass of gas (Mgas ) as observational constraints. Chemical evolution models have been calculated to reproduce the abundances as derived from both, collisionally excited lines (CELs) and recombination lines (RLs). In our models, the chemical contribution of low and intermediate mass stars (LIMS) is time delayed, while for the massive stars the chemical contribution is instantaneous, as in Franco & Carigi (2008). The chemical contribution of SNIa is included in our model, thus we are also able to reproduce the observational Fe/H abundance obtained from A stars.

Tracking the mass-loss history of planetary nebulae (PNe) by means of molecular emission lines (mainly mm and sub-mm ranges) is fundamental to gain insight into the mechanism of nebular shaping. This is particularly important in cases such as NGC 7027, where most of the nebula is constituted by molecular gas (85% of a total of 1.4 M⊙, see Fong et al. 2001).

To this aim, Herschel/HIFI provides an invaluable tool to probe warm molecular gas (~50-1000 K). It produces 1-D, high resolution spectra of the whole nebula (convolved with the telescope beam) in high-excitation molecular transitions (e.g. CO J=6–5, 10–9 and 16–15). Although the morphological information is therefore lost, the kinematics and the excitation conditions can be studied with unprecedented detail (see (see Bujarrabal et al. 2011).).

We have developed a code, shapemol, which, used along the existing SHAPE software (Steffen et al. 2010), implements spatiokinematical modeling with accurate non-LTE calculations of line excitation and radiative transfer in molecular species. The high quality of the data, together with this code, have allowed us to study, for the first time, the kinematics and excitation conditions of the warm gas of a PN with such a high-excitation.

There are several types of binary stars which show non-periodical radial velocity variations with the amplitude larger than those connected with the orbital motion. The non-periodical changes have to be removed in order to study the orbital ones. We propose three removal techniques, two of which are based on the trend modeling with continuous functions and the third one that takes the orbital motion into account.

V405 And is an ultrafast-rotating (Prot ≈ 0.46 days) eclipsing binary. The system consists of a primary star with radiative core and convective envelope, and a fully convective secondary. Theories have shown that stellar structure can depend on magnetic activity, i.e., magnetically active M-dwarfs should have larger radii. Earlier light curve modelling of V405 And indeed showed this behaviour: we found that the radius of the primary is significantly larger than the theoretically predicted value for inactive main sequence stars (the discrepancy is the largest of all known objects), while the secondary fits well to the mass-radius relation. By modelling our recently obtained light curves, which show significant changes of the spotted surface of the primary, we can find further proof for this phenomenon.

The data collection and data analysis pipeline for the study and imaging of interacting binaries is outlined. This process includes the systematic collection of time-resolved spectra of individual systems, data reduction including subtraction of the stellar spectra, application of tomography codes to reveal images of the gas flows in 2D and 3D, comparison of the observed spectrum with synthetic spectra of the accretion disk and gas stream, and application of 3D visualization techniques.

We present the most extensive, long-slit, high-resolution coverage of the complex planetary nebula (PN), NGC 7026. Ten spectra were acquired using the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer at San Pedro Martir Observatory in Baja California, Mexico, and each shows exquisite detail, revealing the intricate structure of this object. Incorporating these spectra into the 3-dimensional visualization and kinematic program, Shape, and using HST images of NGC 7026, we have produced a detailed structural and kinematic model of this PN. Knowledge of the 3-D structure of this nebula is relevant to understand the physics behind the extended X-ray emission in this object.

We have searched for correlated trends in He/H, N/H, O/H, Ne/H, Ar/H, Cl/H, and S/H abundances with their luminosities, Peimbert types, galactocentric radius, emission-line luminosities, diameters, morphologies, surface brightnesses among Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) using a database of 119 PNe with well measured properties. We report selected highlights.

We estimate distances to the spherical planetary nebula Abell 39 and the bipolar planetary nebula NGC 7027 by interpolating from a wide grid of photoionization models using the 3-D code, MOCASSIN. We find preliminary distances of 1.5 kpc and 0.9 kpc respectively, with uncertainties of about 30%.

We present results of a (F)UV spectral analysis of 15 hot, hydrogen-rich central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) of DAO-type (A 7, A 31, A 35, A 39, NGC 3587, NGC 6720, NGC 6853, NGC 7293, PuWe 1, Sh 2-174) and O(H)-type (A 36, Lo 1, LSS 1362, NGC 1360, NGC 4361). The sample covers a wide range of parameters (T eff ≈ 70–130 kK, log g = 5.4–7.4). It represents different stages of post-AGB evolution. The derived stellar parameters are crucial constraints for AGB nucleosynthesis and stellar evolutionary calculations. Detailed spectral analyses using fully line-blanketed NLTE model atmospheres including 23 elements from hydrogen to nickel are performed. Additional modeling of the ISM line absorption enables to unambigiously identify nearly all observed lines and to improve both, the photospheric as well as the ISM model.

Two upcoming large scale surveys, the ESA Gaia and LSST projects, will bring a new era in astronomy. The number of binary systems that will be observed and detected by these projects is enormous, estimations range from millions for Gaia to several tens of millions for LSST. We review some tools that should be developed and also what can be gained from these missions on the subject of binaries and exoplanets from the astrometry, photometry, radial velocity and their alert systems.