Related papers: A new calibration for the Blue Horizontal Branch

Black Hole Low Mass X-ray Binaries (BH-LMXBs) are excellent observational laboratories for studying many open questions in accretion physics. However, determining the physical properties of BH-LMXBs necessitates knowing their distances.…

We present a method to estimate distances to stars with spectroscopically derived stellar parameters. The technique is a Bayesian approach with likelihood estimated via comparison of measured parameters to a grid of stellar isochrones, and…

We use Legacy Survey photometric data to probe the stellar halo in multiple directions of the sky using a probabilistic methodology to identify Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars. The measured average radial density profile follows a double…

We describe a program of surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) measurements for determining galaxy distances. This paper presents the photometric calibration of our sample and of SBF in general. Basing our zero point on observations of…

We present new high-quality near-infrared photometry of 10 Galactic Globular Clusters spanning a wide metallicity range (-2.12<[Fe/H]<-0.49): five clusters belong to the Halo (namely, NGC288, NGC362, NGC6752, M15 and M30) and five (namely,…

Because of their enormous intrinsic brightness blue supergiants are ideal stellar objects to be studied spectroscopically as individuals in galaxies far beyond the Local Group. Quantitative spectroscopy by means of efficient multi-object…

We assess the accuracy with which future galaxy surveys can measure cosmological parameters by deriving a handy approximation that we validate numerically. We find that galaxy surveys are quite complementary to future Cosmic Microwave…

We build a sample of distant (D > 80 kpc) stellar halo stars with measured radial velocities. Faint ($20 < g <22$) candidate blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars were selected using the deep, but wide, multi-epoch Sloan Digital Sky Survey…

We present new spatial models and distance estimates for globular clusters (GC) and dwarf spheroidals (dSphs) orbiting our Galaxy based on RR Lyrae (RRab) stars in the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) 3$\pi$ survey. Using the PS1 sample of RRab stars from…

We have imaged the halo populations of a sample of nearby spiral galaxies using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on broad the Hubble Space Telescope with the aim of studying the stellar population properties and relating them to those of…

In the second paper of this series, we developed a new distance determination method using the median $J$ magnitude of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars (CS) as standard candles and the Magellanic Clouds as the fundamental…

In modern cosmology, determining the Hubble constant (H0) using distance ladder to percent level and comparing with the results from Planck satellite can shed light on the nature of the dark energy, the physics of neutrino, and the…

We determine the distance to the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal via three Population II stellar distance indicators: (a) the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB), (b) RR Lyrae variables (RRLs), and (c) the ridgeline of the blue horizontal branch…

We present a recalibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry with new flat fields and zero points derived from Pan-STARRS1 (PS1). Using PSF photometry of 60 million stars with $16 < r < 20$, we derive a model of amplifier…

New theoretical evaluations of the Red Giant Branch Tip (TRGB) luminosity, by adopting the most updated physical inputs in computing canonical stellar models, are presented. Theoretical relations for the run of the TRGB bolometric and I…

We present a method for measuring the Hubble parameter, H(z), and angular diameter distance, D_A(z), from the two-dimensional two-point correlation function, and validate it using LasDamas mock galaxy catalogs. Applying our method to the…

Two colour photometry of the cluster A1689 reveals a `relative magnification-bias' between lensed blue and red background galaxies, arising from a dependence of the faint galaxy count-slope on colour. The colour distribution is skewed…

We are using optical/IR surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs) to validate the latest stellar population synthesis models and to understand the stellar populations of ellipticals. Integrated light and spectra measure only the first moment…

Hubble Space Telescope imaging for 26 giant early-type galaxies, all drawn from the MAST archive, is used to carry out photometry of their surrounding globular cluster (GC) systems. Most of these targets are Brightest Cluster Galaxies…

We present dynamical distance estimates for 15 Galactic globular clusters and use these to check the consistency of dynamical and photometric distance estimates. For most of the clusters, this is the first dynamical distance estimate ever…