We present deep optical spectroscopy of eight H II regions located in the anti-centre of the Milky Way. The spectra were obtained at the 10.4 m GTC and 8.2 m VLT. We determined Te([N II]) for all objects and Te([O III]) for six of them. We also included in our analysis an additional sample of 13 inner-disc Galactic H II regions from the literature

We have obtained two-dimensional velocity fields in the ionized gas of a set of eight double-barred galaxies, at high spatial and spectral resolution, using their Hα emission fields measured with a scanning Fabry-Perot spectrometer. Using the technique by which phase reversals in the non-circular motion indicate a radius of corotation, taking

In the last decade the importance of mergers in the evolution of galaxies has become evident. In this paper we illustrate this importance by showing examples of merging galaxies, both local and at increasing redshift. However before getting carried away by the charms of the hierarchical model in which large galaxies have been built up by successive

We have obtained medium resolution spectra of the neutron star X-ray transient Aql X-1 during quiescence. We determine the spectral type of the companion star to be K1 and also estimate its rotation speed to be 62^+30^_-20_km/s. By measuring the width of the Hα emission line profile of the accretion disc, we estimate the binary inclination to ~50°

We analysed two-dimensional maps of 48 early-type galaxies obtained with the SAURON and OASIS integral-field spectrographs using kinemetry, a generalization of surface photometry to the higher order moments of the line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD). The maps analysed include: reconstructed image, mean velocity, velocity dispersion, h3 and

We present Galaxy Evolution Explorer far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging of 34 nearby early-type galaxies from the SAURON representative sample of 48 E/S0 galaxies, all of which have ground-based optical imaging from the MDM Observatory. The surface brightness profiles of nine galaxies (~26 per cent) show regions with blue UV