Related papers: Miras around the Galactic Center

We combine near-infrared (2MASS) and mid-infrared (Spitzer-IRAC) photometry to characterize the IR extinction law (1.2-8 microns) over nearly 150 degrees of contiguous Milky Way midplane longitude. The relative extinctions in 5 passbands…

Some Miras -- long-period variables in late evolutionary stages -- have meandering pulsation periods and light curve asymmetries, the causes of which are still unclear. We aim to understand better the origin of these phenomena by…

We have investigated the mass loss processes in Long Period Variables, by combining radiative transfer modeling with mid-IR imaging and spectroscopic observations. We find a correlation between variability type and temporal variations in…

We present an extinction analysis of 9 paths through the LMC and SMC based on FUSE observations. To date, just two LMC sight lines have probed dust grain composition and size distributions in the Clouds using spectra including wavelengths…

Twenty six Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) variables are identified in the Local Group galaxy Leo I. These include 7 Mira and 5 semi-regular variables for which periods, amplitudes and mean magnitudes are determined. The large range of…

The Galactic center (GC) is the densest region of the Milky Way. Variability surveys towards the GC potentially provide the largest number of variable stars per square degree within the Galaxy. However, high stellar density is also a…

We present a Bayesian analysis of the distances to 15,040 Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) RR Lyrae stars using $V$- and $I$-band light curves from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, in combination with new $z$-band observations from…

Context: The distance to the Galactic Centre (GC) is of importance for the distance scale in the Universe. The value derived by Eisenhauer et al. (2005) of 7.62 +- 0.32 kpc based on the orbit of one star around the central black hole is…

We present an extinction map of the inner $\sim$\SI{15}{\arcminute} by {16}{\arcminute} of the Galactic Center (GC) with map `pixels' measuring \SI{5}{\arcsecond} $\times$ \SI{5}{\arcsecond} using integrated light color measurements in the…

We have conducted a deep photometric survey of a 0.5 deg x 0.5 deg area of the Galactic Plane using the WFI instrument on the 2.2-m ESO telescope on La Silla, Chile. The dataset comprises a total of 267 R-band images, 204 from a 16 day…

We present the catalog of RR Lyrae stars discovered in a 4.5 square degrees area in the central parts of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Presented sample contains 7612 objects, including 5455 fundamental mode pulsators (RRab), 1655…

We report the discovery of 73 double-mode RR Lyrae (RRd) stars in fields near the bar of the LMC. The stars are detected among the MACHO database of short-period variables that currently contains about 7900 RR Lyrae stars. Fundamental…

We interpret the interstellar extinction observed towards the Galactic Center (GC) in the wavelength range $\lambda = 1 - 20\,\mkm$. Its main feature is the flat extinction at $3 - 8\,\mkm$ whose explanation is still a problem for the…

We report the results of a diffraction-limited, photometric variability study of the central 5"x5" of the Galaxy conducted over the past 10 years using speckle imaging techniques on the W. M. Keck I 10 m telescope. Within our limiting…

We present near-infrared J,H, and K-band time series observations of the Galactic Globular Cluster (GGC) M92. On the basis of these data, we derived well-sampled light curves for eleven out of the seventeen cluster RR Lyrae variables, and…

We present near-infrared (JKs) time series data of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) cluster Reticulum. The observing strategy and data reduction (DAOPHOTII/ALLFRAME) allowed us to reach a photometry accuracy of the order of 0.02 mag at…

We present a revised distance to the nearby galaxy NGC6822 using a new multi-band fit to both previously published and new optical, near- and mid-infrared data for Cepheid variables. The new data presented in this study include multi-epoch…

We have measured an annual parallax of the Mira variable R~Ursae~Majoris (R~UMa) with the VLBI exploration for Radio Astronomy (VERA). From the monitoring VLBI observations spanning about two years, we detected H$_2$O maser spots in the LSR…

A 20 arcmin \times 20 arcmin region around 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is observed and analyzed in the near-infrared. We obtain polarimetry data in the J, H, and K_s bands using the SIRIUS polarimeter SIRPOL at the…

The period-luminosity relation of Miras and semiregular variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud and in the Galaxy is used to locate their instability domain in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We take advantage of the considerable width in…