The Stetson photometric database 

Peter B. Stetson maintains a database of homogeneous photometry of open and globular clusters, as well as dwarf galaxies and other sky areas of scientific interest (https://www.canfar.net/storage/vault/list/STETSON/homogeneous/). The photometry is based on half a million of public and proprietary images and is calibrated homogeneously on the Landolt system. Even more interesting for the StarDance project, the Stetson database contains epoch photometry which covers up to 34 years and for the best studied open and globular clusters it may count on thousands of individual epochs. Nedless to say, such data are priceless to look for new binaries and exotic objects in star clusters and we are working hard, together with Peter B. Stetson and Matteo Monelli, to analyze this huge mass of information and to make it publicly available to the community. 

The MAUVE space mission

StarDance and INAF participate to the MAUVE space mission, one of the first astrophysical missions led by a private company, Blue Skies Space (https://bssl.space/). MAUVE will observe bright stars in the UV and optical (200-700 nm) with low-resolution spectroscopy (https://bssl.space/mauve/). For our team, this will allow for a systematic search of hot companions to stars belonging to exotic stellar populations, in open clusters and in the field, such as blue stragglers, hot subdwarfs, sub-subgiants, and li-rich stars. We will also be able to monitor some of our targets for variability and to disentangle any binarity signal from stellar activity using various spectral indicators. MAUVE science operations will commence in late 2025 and will last for three years.

The CARMA Project (and the Hubble missing globular clusters survey)

A project to determine accurate ages for globular clusters to trace the accretion history of the Milky Way. This is combined with an HST survey to obtain accurate photometry of neglected globular clusters, which is followed up with much needed high-resolution spectroscopy. The project webpage can be found here:

https://www.oas.inaf.it/en/research/m2-en/carma-en/