We stand at the threshold of an exciting era of Asteroseismology. In a few months' time, the Canadian small-satellite asteroseismology mission MOST will be laun ched. Danish and French missions MONS and COROT should follow, with the ESA mission Eddington following in 2007/8. Helioseismology has proved spec tacularly successful in imaging the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun and probing the physics of the solar interior. Ground-based observations have detected solar-like oscillations on alpha Centauri A and other Sun-like stars, and diagnostics similar to those used in helioseismology are now being used to test and constrain the physics and evolutionary state of these stars. Multi-mode oscillations are being observed in an abundance of other stars, including slowly pulsating B stars (SPB stars), delta Scuti stars, Ap stars and the pulsating white dwarfs. New classes of pulsators continue to be discovered across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. For good reason it was decided to entitle our conference 'Asteroseismology Across the HR Diagram' . Yet the challenges still to be faced to make asteroseismology across the HR diagram a reality are formidable. Observation, data analysis and theory all pose hard problems to be overcome. In conceiving this meeting, the aim of the organisers was to facilitate a cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches between researchers working on different pulsators and with different areas of expertise. We venture to suggest that in this the conference was a great success.

This book is the proceedings of an international conference entitled "Close Binaries in the 21st Century: New Opportunities and Challenges", held in Syros island, Greece, June 27-30, 2005. The papers collected in this volume detail the latest achievements in the field and reflect the state of the art of the dynamically evolving area of binary star research.

The reviews and highlights included in this book of proceedings of the plenary sessions, of the Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting (2002), cover some of the major fields and projects which will determine the research in astronomy in the next decades. The highlights have been presented by young astronomers from several European countries, selected from a list of proposals submitted by different institutions across Europe. This book reflects the multi-disciplinarity and interaction that took place in the meeting. By including reviews on space and ground-based observational programmes, the scientific topics are associated with the new observational efforts in instrumentation. These projects, under development, are expected to drive the research in the coming decades. With such a wide and interdisciplinary coverage this book provides a comprehensive review on the present status and expectations for some of the major fields in astrophysics. This work is of great relevance for students and researchers alike, as it provides an introductory approach to a wide range of fields in Astronomy, but also includes some detailed reviews for the major topics in each field.

The Sun as a Guide to Stellar Physics illustrates the significance of the Sun in understanding stars through an examination of the discoveries and insights gained from solar physics research. Ranging from theories to modeling and from numerical simulations to instrumentation and data processing, the book provides an overview of what we currently understand and how the Sun can be a model for gaining further knowledge about stellar physics. Providing both updates on recent developments in solar physics and applications to stellar physics, this book strengthens the solar–stellar connection and summarizes what we know about the Sun for the stellar, space, and geophysics communities. Applies observations, theoretical understanding, modeling capabilities and physical processes first revealed by the sun to the study of stellar physics Illustrates how studies of Proxima Solaris have led to progress in space science, stellar physics and related fields Uses characteristics of solar phenomena as a guide for understanding the physics of stars