By isolating the red clump giant population in the color-magnitude diagrams and inverting their star counts, we can obtain directly the density distribution of the old stellar population along the line of sight. We have applied this method to several near infrared surveys and obtained information on the disc, bulge and long bar. The disc is well

Context. Several clusters of red supergiants have been discovered in a small region of the Milky Way close to the base of the Scutum-Crux Arm and the tip of the Long Bar. Population synthesis models indicate that they must be very massive to harbour so many supergiants. Amongst these clusters, Stephenson 2, with a core grouping of 26 red

We present new medium-band uvby Strömgren and broadband VI photometry for the central regions of the globular cluster ω Cen. From this photometry we have obtained differential reddening estimates relative to two other globular clusters (M13 and NGC 288) using a metallicity-independent, reddening-free temperature index, [c]≡(u-v)-(v-b)-0.2(b-y), for

An analysis of 50 optical spectra of the interstellar methylidyne ion in the direction of HD26676 and HD149038 derived very similar interstellar isotopic ratios for the two lines-of-sight. A lack of a Galactic gradient in isotopic ratios is noted which is consistent with the location in the solar vicinity of the gas in front of HD149038. The

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We use Gaia Data Release 2 proper motions of field OB stars from the Runaways and Isolated O-Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to study the kinematics of runaway stars. The data reveal that the SMC Wing has a systemic peculiar motion relative to the SMC Bar of ({v}α ,{v}δ ) =(62+/- 7,-18+/- 5) {km} {{{s}}}-1 and