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Estimates of interstellar extinction are essential in a broad range of astronomical research. In the last decades, several maps and models of the large scale interstellar extinction in the Galaxy have been published. However, these maps and models have been developed in different programming languages, with different user interfaces and input/output formats, which makes using and comparing results from these maps and models difficult. To address this issue, we have developed a tool called GALExtin (\url{http://www.galextin.org}) - that estimates interstellar extinction based on both 3D models/maps and 2D maps available. The user only needs to provide a list with coordinates (and distance) and to choose a model/map. GALExtin will then provide an output list with extinction estimates. It can be implemented in any other portal or model that requires interstellar extinction estimates. Here, a general overview of GALExtin is presented, along with its capabilities, validation, performance and some results., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures

Knowledge about the large-scale distribution of galaxies is far from complete in the Zone of Avoidance, which is mostly due to high interstellar extinction and to source confusion at lower Galactic latitudes. Past near-infrared (NIR) surveys, such as the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), have shown the power of probing large-scale structure at these latitudes. Our aim is to map the galaxy distribution across the Southern Galactic plane using the VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea Survey (VVV), which reach 2 to 4 magnitudes deeper than 2MASS. We used SExtractor + PSFEx to identify extended objects and to measure their sizes, the light concentration index, magnitudes, and colours. Morphological and colour constraints and visual inspection were used to confirm galaxies. We present the resulting VVV NIR Galaxy Catalogue of 5563 visually confirmed galaxies, of which only 45 were previously known. This is the largest catalogue of galaxies towards the Galactic plane, with 99% of these galaxies being new discoveries. We found that the galaxy density distribution closely resembled the distribution of low interstellar extinction of the existing NIR maps. We also present a description of the 185 2MASS extended sources observed in the region, of which 16% of these objects had no previous description, which we have now classified. We conclude that interstellar extinction and stellar density are the main limitations for the detection of background galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance. The VVV NIR Galaxy Catalogue is a new data set providing information for extragalactic studies in the Galactic plane., Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journal 21 pages

A study on the photosphere and disc of the Be star $\beta$ Psc is presented. We recover almost 40 years of high-resolution spectroscopic observations and additional data gathered from the BeSS database. We evaluate the photospheric parameters from the SED and fittings of state-of-the-art non-LTE model atmospheres to observed helium, carbon, silicon and magnesium line profiles. Our models include the stellar geometric deformation as well as the co-latitude dependence of temperature and gravity, aiming to derive the effects of rotation on the stellar parameters. We estimate the circumstellar disc parameters from the fitting of models assuming different disc properties, namely its radius and gas density profile. The disc inclination angle $i$ is constrained from the fittings of He I 4471 \r{A}, Mg II 4481 \r{A}, C II 4267 \r{A}, and Si II 4128, 4132 \r{A} lines with gravity darkened models. Our findings, based on model fittings, suggest that during the last 40 years the disc radius changed within the interval $5.5 \le R_d \le 7.8$ $R_*$, the disc base gas density within $5 \times 10^{-13} \le \rho \le 1 \times 10^{-12} g cm^{-3}$, while the radial power-law density index $m$ assumed values between 2.0 and 2.3. These results are in agreement with recent works dealing with spectroscopic and interferometric measurements of this object., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

The flux distribution of solar analogs is required for calculating the spectral albedo of Solar System bodies such as asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects. Ideally a solar analog should be comparably faint as the target of interest, but only few analogs fainter than V = 9 were identified so far. Only atmospheric parameters equal to solar guarantee a flux distribution equal to solar as well, while only photometric colors equal to solar do not. Reddening is also a factor to consider when selecting faint analog candidates. We implement the methodology for identifying faint analogs at the limit of precision allowed by current spectroscopic surveys. We quantify the precision attainable for the atmospheric parameters effective temperature ($T_{eff}$), metallicity ([Fe/H]), surface gravity (log $g$) when derived from moderate low resolution (R=8000) spectra with S/N $\sim 100$. We calibrated $T_{eff}$ and [Fe/H] as functions of equivalent widths of spectral indices by means of the PCA regression. We derive log $g$, mass, radius, and age from the atmospheric parameters, Gaia parallaxes and evolutionary tracks. We obtained $T_{eff}$/[Fe/H]/log $g$ with precision of 97 K/0.06 dex/0.05 dex. We identify five solar analogs with $V\sim10.5$ (located at $\sim135$ pc): HIP 991, HIP 5811, HIP 69477, HIP 55619 and HIP 61835. Other six stars have $T_{eff}$ close to solar but slightly lower [Fe/H]. Our analogs show no evidence of reddening but for four stars, which present $E(B-V) \geq 0.06$ mag, translating to at least a 200 K decrease in photometric $T_{eff}$., Comment: Paper accepted. Fundamental parameters of the solar analogs are in Table 2

The VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) survey is one of six public ESO surveys, and is now in its 4th year of observing. Although far from being complete, the VVV survey has already delivered many results, some directly connected to the intended science goals (detection of variables stars, microlensing events, new star clusters), others concerning more exotic objects, e.g. novae. Now, at the end of the fourth observing period, and comprising roughly 50% of the proposed observations, the actual status of the survey, as well some of the results based on the VVV data, are presented., Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures

We used the HI data from the LAB survey to map the ring-shaped gap in HI density which lies slightly outside the solar circle. Adopting $R_0$= 7.5 kpc, we find and average radius of 8.3 kpc and an average gap width of 0.8 kpc. The characteristics of the HI gap correspond closely to the expected ones, as predicted by theory and by numerical simulations of the gas flow near the corotation resonance., Comment: To be published in MNRAS