The spiral galaxy NGC 7331, in Pegasus, can be seen with small telescopes under dark skies as a faint fuzzy spot. It is an island universe similar to our own Galaxy (or maybe somewhat larger) and placed at a distance of 50 million light-years. NGC 7331 was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel in 1784, and it shows all its magnificence in long-exposure photographs taken through large telescopes. This Calar Alto image offers one of the best snapshots ever obtained of this stellar system...

Even stars have a life cycle. Less massive stars, like the Sun, end their lives blowing away most of their mass in an intense stellar wind, which eventually, and briefly, is surrounded by a beautifully coloured cloud, a so-called planetary nebula. During this process, dying stars enrich the interstellar medium with chemical elements, which will participate in a new generation of stars, planets, and in at least one case, life. The outer parts of planetary nebulae contain valuable information on the important mass loss process. A research team from Potsdam has just published groundbreaking work deciphering the details of this phase of stellar evolution. Their exploration of the halos of five planetary nebulae has been possible thanks to the exceptional capabilities of the PMAS spectrograph that is attached to the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope…

One of the teams of winners of the 2007 edition of ESO contest "Catch a Star" enjoyed their prize in June 2008: a four days visit to Calar Alto Observatory offered by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). During their stay at these Spanish-German facilities placed in South-Eastern Spain, they had the opportunity to learn how a modern observatory is organised, how do modern telescopes and instruments work, and how real astronomical observations are performed...