It is generally believed that expanding superbubbles and mechanical feedback from massive stars trigger star formation, because there are numerous examples of superbubbles showing secondary star formation at their edges. However, although these systems show an age sequence, they do not provide strong evidence of a causal relationship. The W3/W4 Galactic star-forming complex suggests a three-generation hierarchy: the supergiant shell structures correspond to the oldest generation; these triggered the formation of IC 1795 in W3, the progenitor of a molecular superbubble that in turn triggered the current star-forming episodes in the embedded regions W3-North, W3-Main, and W3-OH. We present UBV photometry and spectroscopic classifications for IC 1795, which show an age of 3-5 Myr. This age is intermediate between the reported 6-20 Myr age of the supergiant shell system and the extremely young ages (10^4^-10^5^yr) for the embedded knots of the ultracompact HII regions, W3-North, W3-Main, and W3-OH. Thus, an age sequence is indeed confirmed for the entire W3/W4 hierarchical system. This therefore provides some of the first convincing evidence that superbubble action and mechanical feedback are indeed a triggering mechanism for star formation.
Two new Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars were found in open clusters: a WN4 star in the O9 cluster Sher 1 and a WN7 star in the O7 cluster Westerlund 2. This confirms a previous trend, namely that fainter, hotter WN stars tend to be older than brighter, cooler WN stars. This may be a consequence of evolution via extreme mass loss.
The results of photoelectric UBV photometry of 234 AB stars in the southern galactic halo are presented. The stars were chosen from the Curtis Schmidt objective-prism survey of Preston and Shectman and comprise a sample of halo objects selected without kinematic bias. The majority of the stars lie in the region of the (U-B, B-V) plane occupied by field and globular cluster blue horizontal-branch stars.
Magnitudes in V and B-V and U-B colors observed by the 91-cm telescope at Okayama are presented for 109 stars including both classical and marginal barium stars. The two-color diagram shows a fair amount of spread. This can be interpreted by interstellar reddening and variable amounts of line blocking effect. Both classical and marginal barium stars form a fairly homogeneous group.
The data presented in this catalogue are the results of multicolor photometric observations of stars listed in the Bright Star Catalog. Observations were made on the 21-in, 28-in and 60-in telescopes of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and at Tonanzintla Observatory on the 40-in telescope of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, Universidad Nacional de Mexico. This catalog of UBV photometry on almost 5000 bright stars covers the entire sky by including southern Cape photometry transformed to the UBV system.
UBV measurements of early-type stars, mostly eclipsing binaries, obtained at La Silla in the years 1990 to 1994 with the ESO 50cm telescope are presented. Most of these data were already used in our individual studies of several binaries. Now all photometric measurements were reduced again with an advanced technique and are made available electronically. Our data for MY Ser have not yet been published; new light curve is given and solved. The result is that MY Ser is a contact binary, with very large fill-out parameter. Also a light curve and its solution for V1051 Cen are provided, and the problem of the period of V871 Cen is pointed out. Besides binaries (and the comparison and check stars) data for several stars in southern H II regions are included. Extinction and transformation coefficients are given.
Our aim is to determine the distance of outer Galaxy star-forming complexes in order to model the kinematic structure of our Galaxy. We searched for exciting star(s) of HII regions, with poor or unknown stellar distance, in the second and third galactic quadrants. We carried out spectroscopic and photometric (when necessary) observations in order to establish their spectral type and their U, B and V magnitudes. From these data, complemented with literature data, we determine the spectro-photometric distance of their associated complexes.
Photoelectric UBV observations of 1782 stars are used to explore properties of the HK objective-prism survey conducted by Beers, Preston, and Shectman with the Curtis-Schmidt telescope of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. We construct an intrinsic (U-B)0 versus (B-V)0 relation for blue horizontal branch stars and use it to derive estimates of E(B-V) color excesses in 50 survey fields. Comparison of these with the reddening maps of Burstein and Heiles indicates good agreement except in low-latitude fields toward the Galactic bulge. We describe qualitative features of the stellar content of the HK survey by use of unreddened two-color diagrams and indicate how the photometric data may prove useful in several applications. Finally, we use a halo density model to estimate the variation of completeness with apparent magnitude, B, in our catalog of field horizontal branch star candidates.
We report UBV photoelectric photometry for 273 stars in the fields of the open clusters IC 2395 and BH 47. Our postulate is that, rather than two different clusters in this region of Vela, there is only one, which we call IC 2395 = BH 47. The cluster is centered at about RA = 8h 42min 33s, and DE = -48{deg} 06' 48" (2000), its angular diameter being ~19'. The analysis of the photometric data yields 61 probable cluster members and 16 possible members. Photometric membership probabilities show good agreement with those obtained from a proper motion study for 21 stars in common. The reddening across the cluster appears to be uniform, the mean E(B-V) value being 0.09+/-0.02. The true distance modulus is V_0_-Mv=9.52+/-0.10, corresponding to a distance from the Sun of (800+/-40)pc and 48pc below the Galactic plane. The cluster age, determined by fitting isochrones with core overshooting, turns out to be (6+/-2)Myr. There is a strong likelihood that IC 2395 = BH 47 is physically connected to the Vela OB1C association.
Using ultraviolet photometry from the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) combined with photometry and spectroscopy from three ground-based optical data sets we have analyzed the stellar content of OB associations and field areas in and around the regions N79, N81, N83, and N94 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In particular, we compare data for the OB association Lucke-Hodge 2 (LH 2) to determine how strongly the initial mass function (IMF) may depend on different photometric reductions and calibrations.
