We study the far-infrared emission properties of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 based on IRAS maps and an ISOPHOT map at 180 μm. Based on the analysis of the light profiles, we have been able to identify three main structural components: an unresolved nuclear component, an exponential disk, and a kiloparsec-scale bar. In addition, we also

Narrow-band Hα+[NII] imaging and long-slit spectroscopy at intermediate resolution from [NeV] lambda3426 to [SIII] lambda9532 of the LINER galaxies NGC 4579 and 6500 are analysed. Both galaxies show circumnuclear emission, extending 2kpc from the nucleus of NGC 4579 in a loop structure and 1 kpc from the nucleus of NGC 6500 in a bright knot to the

We report spectral time series of the late O-type runaway supergiant HD 188209. Radial velocity variations of photospheric absorption lines with a possible quasi-period of ~6.4d have been detected in high-resolution echelle spectra. Night-to-night variations in the position and strength of the central emission reversal of the Hα profile occurring

Context. X-Shooter is the first second-generation instrument for the ESO-Very Large Telescope. It is a spectrograph covering the entire 300-2480 nm spectral range at once with a high resolving power. These properties enticed us to observe the well-known trans-Neptunian object (136199) Eris during the science verification of the instrument. The

We present deep photometry in the B, V and I filters from CTIO/MOSAIC for about 270 000 stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy, out to a radius of rell ≈ 0.8 degrees. By combining the accurately calibrated photometry with the spectroscopic metallicity distributions of individual red giant branch stars we obtain the detailed star formation and

We present a progress report of a project to study the quantitative star formation history (SFH) in different parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We use the information in [(B-R), R] color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), which reach down to the oldest main-sequence turnoffs and allow us to retrieve the SFH in detail. We show the first results of