We present here preliminary results of our wide-field study of NGC 3109: a low luminosity galaxy in the outskirts of the Local Group. Its edge-on orientation (which simplifies the study of a possible halo) and the possibility that it could, in fact, be a small spiral (the smallest in the Local Group) makes its deep analysis of major relevance to

Using photometric and redshift data for the Virgo and Coma Clusters, we present evidence for a correlation between the light concentration of elliptical galaxies (including dwarf ellipticals) and the local three-dimensional (i.e., nonprojected) density of the clusters: more concentrated ellipticals are located in denser regions. The null hypothesis

Optical CCD spectra are used to determine the element{Fe} abundances at several positions inside seven bright Galactic H Ii regions. The observed [Fe Iii] line ratios are compared with the predictions of different sets of collision strengths and transition probabilities for this ion to select the atomic data providing the best fit to the

Accurate determination of the rotation rate in the inner radiative zone (0.2

We present results from a survey of an unbiased sample of 38 early-type (S0-Sa), low-inclination, optically barred galaxies in the field, using images both from the ground and from space. Our goal was to find and characterize central stellar and gaseous structures: secondary bars, inner disks, and nuclear rings. We find that bars inside bars are

The goal of this project is to analyze the integrated-light spectrum of a region in the LMC bar, for which HST images are already available yielding color-magnitude diagrams reaching the oldest main-sequence turnoff. Then, we can derive the star formation history in this field through evolutionary/population synthesis of the integrated light from