Related papers: Some Common Problems and Challenges that Emission-…

Eta Car, with its historical outbursts, visible ejecta and massive, variable winds, continues to challenge both observers and modelers. In just the past five years over 100 papers have been published on this fascinating object. We now know…

As part of an effort to better characterize bright cataclysmic variables (CVs) and related systems which have received little attention in the past light curves of four systems (V504 Cen, KT Eri, Ret 1 and CTCV 2056-3014) are analyzed. For…

FUV spectra of Eta Car, recorded across two decades with HST/STIS, document multiple changes in resonant lines caused by dissipating extinction in our line of sight. The FUV flux has increased nearly ten-fold which has led to increased…

We report on high-resolution spectroscopy of the 2009.0 spectroscopic event of $\eta$ Carinae collected via SMARTS observations using the CTIO 1.5 m telescope and echelle spectrograph. Our observations were made almost every night over a…

Changes in the flux and spectrum of Eta Carinae since 1900 have been attributed to the evolution of the central binary by some. Others suggest evolution in the occulting ejecta. The brightness jump in the 1940s, which coincided with the…

We suggest that the mass lost during the evolution of very massive stars may be dominated by optically thick, continuum-driven outbursts or explosions, instead of by steady line-driven winds. In order for a massive star to become a WR star,…

The historical light curve of the 19th century "Great Eruption" of etaCar provides a striking record of violent instabilies encountered by the most massive stars. We report and analyze newly uncovered historical estimates of the visual…

We have investigated the role of a few prominent excitation mechanisms viz. collisional excitation, recombination, continuum fluorescence and Lyman beta fluorescence on the OI line spectra in Herbig Ae/Be stars. The aim is to understand…

FUSE ultraviolet spectra of 8 giant and supergiant stars reveal that high temperature (3 X 10^5 K) atmospheres are common in luminous cool stars and extend across the color-magnitude diagram from Alpha Car (F0 II) to the cool giant Alpha…

T CrB is a symbiotic star that experiences nova outbursts every $\sim$ 80~yr. The next, long-anticipated nova outburst should occur during the 2024-2026 period. Here, we present results of high-resolution optical spectroscopy of T CrB in…

Photometric observations in V and I bands of six eclipsing binaries at the lower limit of the orbital periods of W UMa stars are presented. Three of them are newly discovered eclipsing systems. The light curve solutions revealed that all…

Eta Car is one of the most luminous and massive stars in our Galaxy and is the brightest mid-infrared (mid-IR) source in the sky, outside our solar system. Since the late 1990s the central source has dramatically brightened at ultraviolet…

In late 2006, ground-based photometry of $\eta$ Car plus the Homunculus showed an unexpected decrease in its integrated apparent brightness, an apparent reversal of its long-term brightening. Subsequent HST/WFPC2 photometry of the central…

We present near-infrared spectroscopic observations of SN 1987A covering the period 1358 to 3158 days post-explosion. This is the first time that IR spectra of a supernova have been obtained to such late epochs. The spectra comprise…

This dissertation presents synthetic spectra and response functions of the red giant stellar line emission model of active galactic nuclei. Our results agree with the fundamental line emission characteristics of active galactic nuclei…

Eta Carinae's inner ejecta are dominated observationally by the bright Weigelt blobs and their famously rich spectra of nebular emission and absorption lines. They are dense (n_e ~ 10^7 to 10^8 cm^-3), warm (T_e ~ 6000 to 7000 K) and slow…

The nature of non-variable high-excitation emission lines detected in the optical spectra of normal late-B type and chemically peculiar HgMn and PGa stars is still poorly understood. To better understand the origin of the weak emission…

Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are believed to be evolved, extremely massive stars close to the Eddington Limit and hence prone to bouts of large-scale, unstable mass loss. I discuss current understanding of the evolutionary state of these…

Optical spectra of 14 emission-line galaxies representative of the 1999 NICMOS parallel grism Ha survey of McCarthy et al. are presented. Of the 14, 9 have emission lines confirming the redshifts found in the grism survey. The higher…

The observational diversity of ``gamma-ray bursts'' (GRBs) has been increasing, and the natural inclination is a proliferation of models. We explore the possibility that at least part of this diversity is a consequence of a single basic…