Ca II triplet spectroscopy has been used to derive stellar metallicities for individual stars in four Large Magellanic Cloud fields situated at galactocentric distances of 3°, 5°, 6°, and 8° to the north of the bar. Observed metallicity distributions show a well-defined peak, with a tail toward low metallicities. The mean metallicity remains

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Context: Luminous blue compact galaxies, common at z ~ 1 but now relatively rare, show disturbed kinematics in emission lines. Aims: As part of a programme to understand their formation and evolution, we have investigated the stellar dynamics of a number of nearby objects in this class. Methods: We obtained long-slit spectra with VLT/FORS2 in the

We present observations of the nearby barred starburst galaxy M83 (NGC 5236), with the new Fabry-Perot interferometer GHαFaS mounted on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope on La Palma. The unprecedented high-resolution observations, of 16 pc FWHM-1, of the Hα-emitting gas cover the central 2 kpc of the galaxy. The velocity field displays the

We report on high angular resolution, high-precision spectropolarimetric measurements of a decaying sunspot. The spot gradually lost its penumbra during the course of 3 days. In the late stages of evolution, where the only remnant of the spot is a naked umbra, we find small-scale inhomogeneities in the magnetic canopy surrounding it. The

We present the results of long-slit spectroscopy, in several positions, of the Orion Nebula. Our goal is to study the spatial distributions of a large number of nebular quantities, including line fluxes, physical conditions, and ionic abundances, at a spatial resolution of about 1". In particular, we have compared the O++ abundance determined from