The dependences on the upper-level ionization potential previously observed for electron impact contribution to the Stark widths were also obtained for the proton impact contribution. The relations found can be used in both cases for prediction of new Stark broadening data, thus avoiding much more complicated procedures.

This study inspects the influence of various effects and free parameters of circumstellar material on the emerging light curve of eclipsing binary systems by using the shellspec code. An application to the eclipsing binary system AV Del and an accretion disc model for the system is included.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) provides an excellent opportunity for low cost searches for fast radio transients. We compare transient survey strategies for radio telescope arrays, and determine the most appropriate search strategies for SKA Phase 1, considering event detection rates and processing costs.

The evolution of parallel hardware architectures requires the redevelopment of existing algorithms. However, in the case of polyphase filterbanks, existing literature focuses on filter design rather than the implementation. This work presents a mathematical background for the implementation of polyphase filterbanks specific to radio astronomy, with comparisons to other techniques.

High-resolution spectroscopy and spectopolarimetry of 38 late F-/early G-type Sun-like stars have been undertaken at the Anglo-Australian Telescope for a proxy study of early solar evolution. Several of these stars are good candidates for follow-up Zeeman Doppler imaging studies.

The Mt Pleasant 26-m radio telescope was used to investigate the polarisation characteristics of a sample of strong southern 6.7 GHz methanol masers. Linear polarisation at levels from a few to 10% was found in most sources observed. We also detected circular polarisation in the 6.7 GHz methanol maser G9.62+0.20.

A novel spectrum-extraction method based on 2-D Gaussian model is proposed. The 2-D model parameters are obtained by flat and calibration lamp images. Flux is extracted based on 2-D model and least square theory. Through experiments, extracting spectra using our method gives better performance than 1-D spectrum extraction.

The largest flare data set of DO Cep has been obtained with 89 flares detected in 67.61 hours of U-band flare patrol. The flare data were analysed using statistical analysis methods, such as t-test and the OPEA function. DO Cep seems to be one of the most active flare stars.