XV Special Courses at the National Observatory of Rio De Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 18-22 October 2010

These proceedings will be of interest to scientists, researchers, academics, and graduate students involved in astronomy. In particular, they contain modern reference review material in the areas of theory of star formation, nucleosynthesis of low mass stars, clusters of galaxies and mineralogy of asteroids. These proceedings contain four lectures presented at the XV Special Courses, the Graduate School in Astronomy of the Observatório Nacional in Brazil. These annual schools started in 1996 and provide graduate students and post-docs with a broad view of selected topics in astronomy and astrophysics. Each year four renowned specialists from different areas are invited to give a course of lectures in their field of research. This year, these courses cover the theory of star formation, clusters of galaxies, low mass star nucleosynthesis and mineralogy of asteroids.