We present the results from the 2002-2004 seasons of photometric monitoring of the eclipsing system KH 15D. The eclipse has continued to evolve in secular fashion, and the eclipses are now approximately 24 days in length, or half the period. A periodogram of the most recent data confirms the spectroscopic period of 48.38 days determined by Johnson

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The stellar initial mass function (IMF) integrated over an entire galaxy is an integral over all separate star-formation events. Since most stars form in star clusters with different masses the integrated IMF becomes an integral of the (universal or invariant) canonical stellar IMF over the star-cluster mass function. This integrated IMF is steeper

Recent results from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have resolved starbursts as collections of small young stellar clusters. We have elaborated tep{Melo04} a photometric catalogue of the young stellar clusters in the nuclear starburst of M82, observed with the HST WFPC2 in Hα (F656N) and continuum images. We identify 198 young super stellar clusters

The old stellar populations of the Milky Way carry the signature of their formation environment and dynamical history in their kinematics and chemical abundances. In particular, the dynamically hot thick disk and halo contain the oldest stars in the Galaxy, and are remnants of its more chaotic past. We present a study of the high-latitude thick

We analyze the stellar distribution in the Galactic disc via NIR color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). Extinction measurements in the K band are also extracted from the diagrams both for supporting stellar counts predictions of the Besançon and "SKY" models and for comparing with a three dimensional model of the Galactic extinction. The method is based