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Distance determination is an essential technique in astronomy, and is briefly covered in most textbooks on astrophysics and cosmology. It is rarely covered as a coherent topic in its own right. When i

Distance determination is an essential technique in astronomy, and is briefly covered in most textbooks on astrophysics and cosmology. It is rarely covered as a coherent topic in its own right. When i

Knowing an astrophysical object's distance is key to understanding it. IAU Symposium 289 brought together experts on distance determinations and, importantly, the underlying physics enabling it, covering scales from the solar neighbourhood to the edge of the Universe. It explores how various methods are employed to define the milestones deeper into space, from trigonometry to applications based on general relativistic effects and even more exotic techniques. The contributors to this volume emphasise the physical bases of the methods and recent advances made to further our physical insights. The volume provides a snapshot of the field of distance measurement, offering not only up-to-date results and a cutting-edge account of recent progress, but also full discussion of the pitfalls encountered and the uncertainties that remain. This Symposium is especially timely, as we look forward to the era of high-precision astrometry data from Gaia and very long baseline interferometers on the grou

Star clusters are important to many areas of astronomy, and as the basic building blocks of galaxies, they can be used as key diagnostic tools within a wide range of disciplines in astrophysics. Star cluster populations are powerful tracers of the formation, assembly and evolutionary history of their parent galaxies. Although their importance has been recognised for decades, only in recent years has this area seen a major investment in time and effort. IAU Symposium 266 consolidates the expertise of leading researchers from a variety of topical subfields in astrophysics, to provide a comprehensive presentation of cutting-edge developments in theory, observations and simulations of star clusters and star cluster systems across a range of sizes and epochs. This volume gives an account of this forefront research, answering fundamental questions that will improve our understanding of numerous related issues and show how this field will take its next major step forward.