The publication series of Communications in Asteroseismology (CoAst) is one of the most important international journals in the field of asteroseismology. Asteroseismology is the science concerned with stellar pulsation. Every six months, CoAst publishes a newsletter with papers about the latest results and ongoing research projects. Besides these regular issues, special issues such as conference proceedings or software manuals are published in this series. The first newsletter in 2008 again covers a wide range of scientific research. The papers in this volume report progress and results of ground based and space borne observations of pulsating stars with photometric and spectroscopic techniques. Theoretical papers compare the observational mode identification with seismic models. Furthermore, the European Helio- and Asteroseismic network (HELAS, European Commission's Sixth Framework Program) reports on new tools and structure for scientific exchange among astronomers.

The publication series Communications in Asteroseismology (CoAst) is one of the most important international journals in the field of asteroseismology. Asteroseismology is the science of variable and pulsating stars. Every six months CoAst publishes a newsletter with papers on ongoing research projects. Besides these regular issues, special issues such as conference proceedings or program manuals are published in this series. Volume 156 contains publications on a wide variety of pulsating stars at diverse evolutionary stages that have been analysed on the basis of photometrical or numerical techniques. These include a paper on the first detections of the CoRoT satellite, which started to operate almost one year ago. The last article in this issue contains a report of the European Helio- and Asteroseismology Network (HELAS) where activities and future plans concerning the european asteroseismology are presented.

Simon Murphy's thesis has significant impact on the wide use of the revolutionary Kepler Mission data, leading to a new understanding in stellar astrophysics. It first provides a deep characterisation and comparison of the Kepler long cadence and short cadence data, with particular insight into the Kepler reduction pipeline. It then brings together modern reviews of rotation and peculiarities in A-type stars, and their relationship with the pulsating delta Scuti stars. This is the first combined review of these subjects since the classic monograph by Sydney Wolff, "The A stars," was published three decades ago. The thesis presents a novel technique, Super-Nyquist Asteroseismology, that has opened up the asteroseismic study of thousands of Kepler stars. It shows case studies of delta Scuti stars examining amplitude growth, super-Nyquist pulsation, and pulsation in a high-amplitude, population II SX Phoenicis star in a 343-d binary. This work informs our understanding of the relation of rotation to peculiarity, hence has applications to atomic diffusion theory. This is a brilliant thesis written in an elegant and engaging style.

These are the proceedings of a meeting celebrating Michael Thompson's seminal work on solar and stellar physics, as well as his major contributions to the development of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The meeting also marked Michael J. Thompson’s untimely death in October 2018. Michael played a key role in the development of helioseismology and its application to the study of the structure and dynamics of the solar interior, and he provided a strong foundation for the extension of seismic studies for other stars. After focusing for several years on more administrative activities, he was returning to leading the seismic studies of solar interior rotation and he was deeply involved in the understanding of the dynamics of the core of stars, when his life was tragically lost. The conference focused on dynamical aspects of the sun and stars, based on the large amount of data available on solar and stellar oscillations, and the extensive and detailed modelling now becoming feasible. Combining observations, seismic analysis, and modelling the meeting and this book serve as a fitting memorial to a close colleague and friend, much missed.