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The spectral energy distributions for pure-hydrogen (DA) hot white dwarfs can be accurately predicted by model atmospheres. This makes it possible to define spectrophotometric calibrators by scaling the theoretical spectral shapes with…
88 dwarfs, covering the colour index interval 0.37 <(B-V)o <= 1.07 mag, with metallicities -2.70 <= [Fe/H] <= +0.26 dex have been taken from three different sources for new metallicity calibration. The catalogue of Cayrel de Stroble et al.…
We propose a new probe of the dependence of the fine structure constant, alpha, on a strong gravitational field using metal lines in the spectra of white dwarf stars. Comparison of laboratory spectra with far-UV astronomical spectra from…
With the Delta a photometric system, it is possible to study very distant galactic and even extragalactic clusters with a high level of accuracy. This can be done with a classical color-magnitude diagram and appropriate isochrones. The new…
Mira variables in globular clusters can provide an accurate and precise absolute calibration of their period-luminosity relations (PLRs) to independently anchor the cosmic distance scale and determine the Hubble constant. We present…
The paucity of observed dwarf galaxies in the Local Group relative to the abundance of predicted dark matter halos remains one of the greatest puzzles of the LCDM paradigm. Solving this puzzle now requires not only matching the numbers of…
Colour-magnitude diagrams form a traditional way of presenting luminous objects in the Universe and compare them to each others. Here, we estimate the photometric distance of 44 transiting exoplanetary systems. Parallaxes for seven systems…
We present precise photometry and spectroscopy for 23 candidate spectrophotometric standard white dwarfs. The selected stars are distributed in the Northern hemisphere and around the celestial equators and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag.…
We present a simple approach for obtaining robust values of astrophysical parameters from the observed colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of star clusters. The basic inputs are the Hess diagram built with the photometric measurements of a…
We suggest a simple analytic approximation for magnitudes and hence distances of Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars in Sloan colours. Precedent formulations do not offer a simple closed formula, nor do they cover the full dependences, e.g.…
We have used new parallax measurements, obtained by the Hipparcos satellite, of fifteen nearby, metal-poor stars to re-define the subdwarf main-sequence. All of these stars have parallaxes determined to an accuracy of at least 12 %.…
We use star counts from 13 deep HST fields imaged with the {\it Wide Field Camera - 2} in order to constrain the amount of dark matter in the Galaxy that can be in the form of low-mass main sequence stars or white-dwarfs. Based on the…
The pulsational method to estimate the absolute magnitudes of RR Lyrae stars is updated with new data on field-star metallicities by Layden, a new calibration of the (B-V)_0-temperature correlation from recent atmospheric models by Bell and…
I list the characteristic features of Globular Cluster (GC) HR diagrams which provide a complete test of the stellar evolution of low mass stars: morphologies describing the different evolutionary phases, number ratios and luminosity…
In a series of articles we describe a novel class of geometrical models of relativistic stars. Our approach to the static spherically symmetric solutions of Einstein equations is based on a careful physical analysis of radial gauge…
We use the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope to measure velocity shifts and gravitational redshifts of eight bona fide Hyades white dwarfs, with an accuracy better than 1.5 percent. By comparing the gravitational redshift…
We carried out low resolution spectroscopic observations in the wavelength range 3400-4700 A of 20 He-weak and 8 He-strong stars to determine their fundamental parameters by means of the Divan-Chalonge-Barbier (BCD) spectrophotometric…
We present metallicity and photometric parallax calibrations for the F and G type dwarfs with photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic data. The sample consists of 168 dwarf stars covering the colour, iron abundance and absolute magnitude…
Determining the physical properties of microlensing events depends on having accurate angular sizes of the source star. Using long-baseline optical interferometry we are able to measure the angular sizes of nearby stars with uncertainties…
Probability density functions are determined from new stellar parameters for the distance moduli of stars for which the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) has obtained spectra with S/N>=10. Single-Gaussian fits to the pdf in distance modulus…