The Downing Planetarium is the first facility in a new Central California Science Center planned for the California State University, Fresno campus. Construction of this 1.7 million project was primarily funded through a 1.1 million donation from Dr. F. Harold Downing. At the successful completion of construction, Dr. Downing also established a $1

We report results of a spectrophotometric study of SBS 1150+599A and discuss the nature of this object based upon our data. Our study shows that SBS 1150+599A is most probably a planetary nebula located in the Galactic halo and not a cataclysmic variable as originally proposed by the authors of the Second Byurakan Survey from low resolution

We present the first radial velocity measurement of the stellar component of the Local Group dwarf galaxy Phoenix, using the FORS1 instrument at the VLT's Unit Telescope 1 (Antu). From the spectra of 31 red giant branch stars, we derive a heliocentric optical radial velocity for Phoenix of Vsolar=-52+/-6 km s-1. On the basis of this velocity, and

We report on Télescope Héliographique pour l'Etude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires (THEMIS)2 observations of linear polarization events associated with umbral flashes observed in the Ca II infrared (IR) triplet lines. The observed signals are usually delayed in time and shifted in space when compared to the intensity and circular

We present complete near-infrared (0.85-2.45 μm), low-resolution (~100) spectra of a sample of 26 disk L dwarfs with reliable optical spectral type classification. The observations have been obtained with the Near Infrared Camera and Spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo using a prism-based optical element (the Amici device) that

We present low-resolution (R~450) K-band spectroscopy for 16 of the 43 circumnuclear star-forming knots in M100 identified by Ryder & Knapen. We compare our measurements of equivalent widths for the Brγ emission line and CO 2.29-μm absorption band in each knot with the predictions of starburst models from the literature, and derive ages and burst