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The spectroscopic evolution of Hen\,3-1357, the Stingray Nebula, is presented by analysing data from 1990 to 2021. High resolution data obtained in 2021 with South African Large Telescope High Resolution Spectrograph and in 2009 with European Southern Observatory-Very Large Telescope UVES spectrograph are used to determine physical conditions and chemical abundances in the nebula. From comparison of these data with data from different epochs it is found that the intensity of highly-ionized emission lines has been decreasing with time, while the emission of low-ionization lines has been increasing, confirming that the nebula is recombining, lowering its excitation class, as a consequence of the changes in the central star which in 2002 had an effective temperature of 60,000 K and from then it has been getting colder. The present effective temperature of the central star is about 40,000 K. It has been suggested that the central star has suffered a late thermal pulse and it is returning to the AGB phase. The nebular chemistry of Hen\,3-1357 indicates that all the elements, except He and Ne, present sub solar abundances. The comparison of the nebular abundances with the values predicted by stellar nucleosynthesis models at the end of the AGB phase, shows that the central star had an initial mass lower than 1.5 M$_{\odot}$. We estimated the ADF(O$^{+2}$) to be between 2.6 and 3.5., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in MNRAS

We report the discovery of a bright (g = 14.5 mag (AB), K = 11.9 mag (Vega)) quasar at redshift z = 0.83 -- the optically brightest (unbeamed) quasar at z > 0.4. SMSS J114447.77-430859.3, at a Galactic latitude of b = +18.1deg, was identified by its optical colours from the SkyMapper Southern Survey (SMSS) during a search for symbiotic binary stars. Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy reveals broad MgII, H-beta, H-alpha, and Pa-beta emission lines, from which we measure a black hole mass of log10(M_BH/M_Sun) = 9.4 +/- 0.5. With its high luminosity, L_bol = (4.7 +/- 1.0) * 10^47 erg/s or M_i(z=2) = -29.74 mag (AB), we estimate an Eddington ratio of ~1.4. As the most luminous quasar known over the last ~9 Gyr of cosmic history, having a luminosity 8 times greater than 3C 273, the source offers a range of potential follow-up opportunities., Comment: 13 pages. Accepted for publication in PASA

Current models predict that binary interactions are a major ingredient for the formation of bipolar planetary nebulae (PNe) and pre-planetary nebulae (PPNe). Despite years of radial velocity (RV) monitoring, the paucity of known binaries amongst the latter systems is insufficient to examine this relationship in detail. In this paper, we report on the discovery of a long period (P=2654$\pm$124 d) binary at the centre of the Galactic bipolar PPN, IRAS 08005-2356 (V510 Pup) determined from long-term spectroscopic and near-infrared time series data. The spectroscopic orbit is fit with an eccentricity of 0.36$\pm$0.05 that is similar to other long period post-AGB binaries. Time resolved H$\alpha$ profiles reveal high-velocity outflows (jets) with de-projected velocities up to 231$_{-27}^{+31}$ km s$^{-1}$ seen at phases when the luminous primary is behind the jet. The outflow traced by H$\alpha$ is likely produced via accretion onto a main sequence companion for which we calculate a mass of 0.63$\pm$0.13 M$_\odot$. This discovery is one of the first cases of a confirmed binary PPN and demonstrates the importance of high-resolution spectroscopic monitoring surveys on large telescopes in revealing binarity among these systems., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 Pages, 7 Figures