  The Virtual Observatory is useful. I summarise some of my works where I
extensively use the Aladin sky atlas. Topics cover from the search and common
proper motion confirmation of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in wide (rho
> 1000 AU) binaries and multiple systems, to the identification and
characterisation of stellar and substellar populations in young open clusters
and OB associations at heliocentric distances of up to 1000 pc. I present three
practical examples of what one can do with Aladin in one morning: a fruitful
proper-motion search of objects with available ugrizJHKs photometry, an
analysis of the 21 cm radio sources towards the young sigma Orionis cluster,
and a novel study of X-ray young stars surrounding Alnilam in the Orion Belt.
