We present simultaneous high time resolution (1-10 Hz) X-ray and optical observations of the persistent LMXBs Sco X-1 and V801 Ara( = 4U 1636-536). In the case of Sco X-1 we find that the Bowen/HeII emission lags the X-ray light-curves with a light travel time of ~11-16 s which is consistent with reprocessing in the donor star. We also present the

New z-band (F850LP, denoted z850 hereafter) imaging was obtained with the ACS camera onboard HST in November 2004 (AC114) and July 2005 (Abell 1835). The 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0{mu}m images were obtained using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), while the 24{mu}m images were obtained using the Multi-band Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS), both

We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) integral-field observations of the circumnuclear star formation rings in five nearby spiral galaxies. The data, obtained at the Very Large Telescope with the SINFONI spectrograph, are used to construct maps of various emission lines that reveal the individual star forming regions ("hot spots") delineating

We propose to continue a northern sky program using high resolution, moderate S/N spectra to discover the chemically oldest stars - ultra metal-poor dwarfs and giants drawn from the Hamburg/ESO and SEGUE surveys. With these data we seek to (1) discover more stars with [Fe/H] -4.0 (only three of which are known and all of which our group has

We present results from a photometric Hα survey of 22 nuclear rings, aiming to provide insight into their star formation properties, including age distribution, dynamical timescales, star formation rates, and galactic bar influence. We find a clear relationship between the position angles and ellipticities of the rings and those of their host

We report optical spectroscopy of LSPM J1528+5937, the proposed optical counterpart to the recently discovered X-ray transient XMMSL1 J152835.4+593754 (Saxton et al. 2008, ATel #1361). A 900s spectrum was acquired starting on 2008 Jan 20 05:43 UT using the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope on La Palma equipped with the dual-beam ISIS spectrograph