HELYCON, the HEllenic LYceum Cosmic Observatories Network, is a network of detector stations distributed over greater Patra, and the Chios and Cyprus Islands. HELYCON aims to observe Extensive Air Showers of very energetic cosmic rays. It is also used for the calibration of KM3NeT, the Mediterranean neutrino telescope. We report on the design, construction and performance of this prototype detector array.

The lower limit of an accurate determination of stellar brightness is usually determined from the standard deviation of a certain part of the star deflection, as it is recorded by the recording facility at hand. This sample is considered, according to the observer’s estimation (judgment) to reflect the noise of his photometric system and is clear from any real stellar brightness variations. The combined use of Fractal analysis, Fourier analysis and wavelet analysis will improve efficiently the ability of the available instrumentation in detecting weak transient stellar brightness variations. Fractal analysis will provide decisive arguments on the estimation of the sample randomness and will indicate the presence or not of non-random constituent in the sample and Fourier and wavelet analysis will provide the exact determination of this variation in the frequency and in the time domain.

We present the two spectrometers which are (or soon will be) installed on the new 2.3 m ARISTARCHOS telescope in Greece. The Aristarchos Transient Spectrometer (ATS), is a new low-medium resolution spectrometer, that has been developed in order to study relatively bright but transient phenomena like the variability of cataclysmic variables stars, Active Galactic Nuclei, Symbiotic stars, the optical flashes of Gamma-Ray bursts and Novae etc. Its installation has been completed and first light spectra are presented. The Manchester Echelle Spectrometer (MES-AT) is a very well known instrument already used successfully at different astronomical sites (i.e. Anglo-Australian, La Palma and San Pedro Martir observatories). This high resolution spectrometer is dedicated to the investigation of extended line-emission phenomena (supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, H{\sc ii} regions, luminous blue variable star's nebulae etc.). After its upgrade with the installtion of a new arc lamp system is going to be installed on the telescope with the completion of this procedure to be close to the end of September 2007.

One of the recent achievements at the Laboratory of Astronomy and Applied Optics of the University of Athens is the construction of a medium-resolution stellar spectrograph. The instrument was initially built for laboratory applications and later was modified for astronomical use. The installation of the stellar spectrograph on the telescope of the University of Athens Observatory was successful, despite the heavy light pollution, and is characterized as the beginning of spectroscopic observations from an observatory in Athens. The stellar spectrograph has a resolution of 48000 with a limiting resolution of 0.1Å. It can be used for spectral classification for stars brighter than 9mag, for studies of fast rotating stars and the detection (possibly discovery) of binary stars among single ones.

We present the first Greek meteor observing station. The system is comprised of three identical WATEC 902DM2S CCD video cameras that monitor 65% of the visible celestial hemisphere. The data collected are automatically recorded and analyzed by software to detect meteors and fireballs and they can be used for measuring the velocity, the trajectories of meteors and reconstruct the radiant point. The results can be announced to the relative network of meteor stations and make a statistical study of the meteor fluctuations. In addition, video observations can be enhanced by the parallel observations of the corresponding radio signal of the meteors.

The package of the Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE) on board the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO) of the Bepi-Colombo Mission includes an advanced Mass Spectrum Analyzer (MSA) dedicated to measurements of mass-resolved low energy 3-D ion distributions. The MSA instrument consists of a top-hat electrostatic analyzer combined with a Time-Of-Flight (TOF) spectrometer providing an unprecedented mass resolution (m/Δm=40 for ion energies < 15 keV and m/Δm=15 for ion energies > 15 keV) in the energy range 5 eV/q – 40 keV/q at 64 energy steps. The instrument Field of View is 8 deg X 360 deg with an angular resolution of 8 ded X 11.25 deg. The time resolution for measurements of the 3-D distribution function is 2 sec (half spin period). The MSA/CPU to be developed by DUTH/SRL is based on discrete Rad Hard devices and is implemented using specific fault tolerant design techniques. The CPU is designed to handle a raw data rate of 4 Mbps (out of a total of 4.9 Mbps of the MPPE package), to acquire Housekeeping data, to interface to the TOF unit and the TC/TM board, to control the High Voltage Power Supplies of the electrostatic analyzer and to derive science data from the onboard processing of engineering raw data.