We report 0.9-1.4 mu m spectroscopic observations of NGC 1068 collected during the commissioning phase of the near infrared camera spectrometer (NICS) of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG). These yielded the first extragalactic measurement of [P II] (1.188 mu m) line emission. In the central 0.75arcsecx2 arcsec the [Fe II]/[P II] line-intensity

Broadband observations in B, V, R, and I have been performed for a sample of 28 galaxies cataloged as blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs). Our deep imaging, reaching surface brightness levels of a few percent of the sky brightness, has allowed the detection of underlying emission or low surface brightness features for a substantial fraction of the

We present optical spectroscopy of H Ii regions in the Local Group galaxy IC 10 and UBVR photometry of foreground stars in three fields towards this galaxy. From these data, we find that the foreground reddening due to the Milky Way is E(B-V)=0.77+/- 0.07 mag. We find that IC 10 contains considerable internal dust, which qualitatively explains the

BVRI CCD-based and near-IR (J) imaging, together with unfiltered photometry of the hot subdwarf B star PG 0856+121, are reported. Two close, faint, red, point-like sources are resolved. They account for the previously reported IR excess observed in this hot subdwarf. In addition, the new unfiltered differential photometry of PG 0856+121 confirms

We present a time-dependent semiempirical model of the chromospheric umbral oscillation in sunspots. This model has been obtained by applying recently developed non-LTE inversion techniques to a time series of spectropolarimetric observations. The model consists of two optically thick unresolved atmospheric components: a ``quiet'' component with

We show that the normalized Lorentzian state sum is finite on any triangulation. It thus provides a candidate for a perturbatively finite quantum theory of general relativity in four dimensions with Lorentzian signature.