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Precise radial velocities of giant stars. I. Stable stars
Context: .Future astrometric missions such as SIM PlanetQuest need verystable reference stars. K giants have large luminosities, which placethem at large distances and thus the jitter of their photocenters bycompanions is relatively small. Therefore K giants would be best suitedas references. To confirm this observationally a radial velocity surveyis performed to quantify the level of intrinsic variability in Kgiants. Aims: .From this radial velocity survey we present 34 Kgiants with an observed standard deviation of the radial velocity ofless than 20 m/s. These stars are considered "stable" and can be used asradial velocity standards. Methods: .The radial velocity surveycontains 179 K giants. All K giants have a declination between -30°and +65° and visual magnitude of 3{-}6 mag. The CoudéAuxiliary Telescope (CAT) at UCO/Lick Observatory is used to obtainradial velocities with an accuracy of 5{-}8 m/s. The number of epochsfor the 34 stable stars ranges from 11 to 28 with a total timespan ofthe observations between 1800 and a little over 2200 days. Results: .The observational results of the 34 "stable" stars are showntogether with a discussion about their position in the MV vs.B-V diagram and some conclusions concerning the radial velocityvariability of K giants. These results are in agreement with thetheoretical predictions. K giants in a certain range of theMV vs. B-V diagram are suitable reference stars.

Group, field and isolated early-type galaxies - I. Observations and nuclear data
This is the first paper of a series on the investigation of stellarpopulation properties and galaxy evolution of an observationallyhomogeneous sample of early-type galaxies in groups, field and isolatedgalaxies.Here we present high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) long-slit spectroscopyof 86 nearby elliptical and S0 galaxies. Eight of them are isolated,selected according to a rigorous criterion, which guarantees a genuinelow-density subsample. The present survey has the advantage of coveringa larger wavelength range than normally found in the literature, whichincludes [OIII]λ5007 and Hα, both lines important foremission correction. Among the 86 galaxies with S/N >= 15 (perresolution element, for re/8 central aperture), 57 have theirHβ-index corrected for emission (the average correction is 0.190Åin Hβ) and 42 galaxies reveal [OIII]λ5007 emission,of which 16 also show obvious Hα emission. Most of the galaxies inthe sample do not show obvious signs of disturbances nor tidal featuresin the morphologies, although 11 belong to the Arp catalogue of peculiargalaxies; only three of them (NGC 750, 751 and 3226) seem to be stronglyinteracting. We present the measurement of 25 central line-strengthindices calibrated to the Lick/IDS system. Kinematic information isobtained for the sample. We analyse the line-strength index versusvelocity dispersion relations for our sample of mainly low-densityenvironment galaxies, and compare the slope of the relations withcluster galaxies from the literature. Our main findings are that theindex-σ0 relations presented for low-density regionsare not significantly different from those of cluster E/S0s. The slopeof the index-σ0 relations does not seem to change forearly-type galaxies of different environmental densities, but thescatter of the relations seems larger for group, field and isolatedgalaxies than for cluster galaxies.

Analysis of the Na, Mg, Al, and Si Abundances in the Atmospheres of Red Giants of Different Spectral Subgroups
We analyze the Na, Mg, Al, and Si abundances in the atmospheres of morethan 40 stars, includingred giants of different spectral subgroups(normal red giants, mild and classical barium stars) and severalsupergiants. All these elements exhibit abundance excesses, with theoverabundance increasing with the star’s luminosity. Thedependence of the overabundances for each of these elements on theluminosity (or log g) is the same for all the spectral subgroups,testifying to a common origin: they are all products of hydrogen burningin the NeNa and MgAl cycles that have been dredged up from the stellarinteriors to the outer atmospheric layers by convection that graduallydevelops during the star’s evolution from the main sequence to thered-giant stage. The sodium abundances derived for several stars arelower than for other stars with similar atmospheric parameters. The agesand kinematic characteristics of these two groups of stars suggest thatthey probably belong to different stellar generations.

Radial Velocities of Late-Type Field Subgiant Stars
High-dispersion coudé spectra were observed and measured for 43field subgiants of the G and K spectral types, with the intent ofsearching for hitherto undiscovered spectroscopic binaries. Statisticalanalysis of the measurements revealed no definite but two possible newbinaries. We present the data and discuss the statistical analysis usedto test for new binaries. Additionally, we discuss the techniques forhigh precision of radial-velocity measurement, and the systematic errorsthat interfere with that goal.

Can Life Develop in the Expanded Habitable Zones around Red Giant Stars?
We present some new ideas about the possibility of life developingaround subgiant and red giant stars. Our study concerns the temporalevolution of the habitable zone. The distance between the star and thehabitable zone, as well as its width, increases with time as aconsequence of stellar evolution. The habitable zone moves outward afterthe star leaves the main sequence, sweeping a wider range of distancesfrom the star until the star reaches the tip of the asymptotic giantbranch. Currently there is no clear evidence as to when life actuallyformed on the Earth, but recent isotopic data suggest life existed atleast as early as 7×108 yr after the Earth was formed.Thus, if life could form and evolve over time intervals from5×108 to 109 yr, then there could behabitable planets with life around red giant stars. For a 1Msolar star at the first stages of its post-main-sequenceevolution, the temporal transit of the habitable zone is estimated to beseveral times 109 yr at 2 AU and around 108 yr at9 AU. Under these circumstances life could develop at distances in therange 2-9 AU in the environment of subgiant or giant stars, and in thefar distant future in the environment of our own solar system. After astar completes its first ascent along the red giant branch and the Heflash takes place, there is an additional stable period of quiescent Hecore burning during which there is another opportunity for life todevelop. For a 1 Msolar star there is an additional109 yr with a stable habitable zone in the region from 7 to22 AU. Space astronomy missions, such as proposed for the TerrestrialPlanet Finder (TPF) and Darwin, that focus on searches for signatures oflife on extrasolar planets, should also consider the environments ofsubgiants and red giant stars as potentially interesting sites forunderstanding the development of life. We performed a preliminaryevaluation of the difficulty of interferometric observations of planetsaround red giant stars compared to a main-sequence star environment. Weshow that pathfinder missions for TPF and Darwin, such as Eclipse andFKSI, have sufficient angular resolution and sensitivity to search forhabitable planets around some of the closest evolved stars of thesubgiant and red giant class.

Nearby early-type galaxies with ionized gas. I. Line-strength indices of the underlying stellar population
With the aim of building a data-set of spectral properties of wellstudied early-type galaxies showing emission lines, we presentintermediate resolution spectra of 50 galaxies in the nearby Universe.The sample, which covers several of the E and S0 morphologicalsub-classes, is biased toward objects that might be expected to haveongoing and recent star formation, at least in small amounts, because ofthe presence of the emission lines. The emission is expected to comefrom the combination of active galactic nuclei and star formationregions within the galaxies. Sample galaxies are located in environmentscorresponding to a broad range of local galaxy densities, althoughpredominantly in low density environments. Our long-slit spectra coverthe 3700-7250 Å wavelength range with a spectral resolution of≈7.6 Å at 5550 Å. The specific aim of this paper, and ourfirst step in the investigation, is to map the underlying galaxy stellarpopulation by measuring, along the slit positioned along the galaxymajor axis, line-strength indices at several, homogeneousgalacto-centric distances. For each object we extracted 7luminosity-weighted apertures (with radii 1.5´´,2.5´´, 10´´, r_e/10, r_e/8, r_e/4 and r_e/2)corrected for the galaxy ellipticity and 4 gradients (0 ≤ r ≤r_e/16, r_e/16 ≤ r ≤ r_e/8, r_e/8 ≤ r ≤ r_e/4 and r_e/4≤ r ≤ r_e/2). For each aperture and gradient we measured 25line-strength indices: 21 of the set defined by the Lick-IDS“standard” system (Trager et al. [CITE], ApJS, 116, 1) and 4introduced by Worthey & Ottaviani ([CITE], ApJS, 111, 377).Line-strength indices have been transformed to the Lick-IDS system.Indices derived then include Hβ, Mg1, Mg2, Mgb, MgFe, Fe5270,Fe5335 commonly used in classic index-index diagrams. The paperintroduces the sample, presents the observations, describes the datareduction procedures, the extraction of apertures and gradients, thedetermination and correction of the line-strength indices, the procedureadopted to transform them into the Lick-IDS System and the proceduresadopted for the emission correction. We finally discuss the comparisonsbetween our dataset and line-strength indices available in theliterature. A significant fraction, about 60%, of galaxies in thepresent sample has one previous measurement in the Lick-IDS system butbasically restricted within the r_e/8 region. Line-strength measuresobtained both from apertures and gradients outside this area and withinthe r_e/8 region, with the present radial mapping, are completely new.Full appendix and Figs. 8 to 13 are only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org Full Tables 6, 7, 9 and 10 are only availableat the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) orvia http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/433/497 Based onobservations obtained at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla,Chile (Programs Nr. 60.A-0647 and 61.A-0406).

CHARM2: An updated Catalog of High Angular Resolution Measurements
We present an update of the Catalog of High Angular ResolutionMeasurements (CHARM, Richichi & Percheron \cite{CHARM}, A&A,386, 492), which includes results available until July 2004. CHARM2 is acompilation of direct measurements by high angular resolution methods,as well as indirect estimates of stellar diameters. Its main goal is toprovide a reference list of sources which can be used for calibrationand verification observations with long-baseline optical and near-IRinterferometers. Single and binary stars are included, as are complexobjects from circumstellar shells to extragalactic sources. The presentupdate provides an increase of almost a factor of two over the previousedition. Additionally, it includes several corrections and improvements,as well as a cross-check with the valuable public release observationsof the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). A total of 8231entries for 3238 unique sources are now present in CHARM2. Thisrepresents an increase of a factor of 3.4 and 2.0, respectively, overthe contents of the previous version of CHARM.The catalog is only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/431/773

Local kinematics of K and M giants from CORAVEL/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters
The availability of the Hipparcos Catalogue has triggered many kinematicand dynamical studies of the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, thosestudies generally lacked the third component of the space velocities,i.e., the radial velocities. This work presents the kinematic analysisof 5952 K and 739 M giants in the solar neighbourhood which includes forthe first time radial velocity data from a large survey performed withthe CORAVEL spectrovelocimeter. It also uses proper motions from theTycho-2 catalogue, which are expected to be more accurate than theHipparcos ones. An important by-product of this study is the observedfraction of only 5.7% of spectroscopic binaries among M giants ascompared to 13.7% for K giants. After excluding the binaries for whichno center-of-mass velocity could be estimated, 5311 K and 719 M giantsremain in the final sample. The UV-plane constructed from these datafor the stars with precise parallaxes (σπ/π≤20%) reveals a rich small-scale structure, with several clumpscorresponding to the Hercules stream, the Sirius moving group, and theHyades and Pleiades superclusters. A maximum-likelihood method, based ona Bayesian approach, has been applied to the data, in order to make fulluse of all the available stars (not only those with precise parallaxes)and to derive the kinematic properties of these subgroups. Isochrones inthe Hertzsprung-Russell diagram reveal a very wide range of ages forstars belonging to these groups. These groups are most probably relatedto the dynamical perturbation by transient spiral waves (as recentlymodelled by De Simone et al. \cite{Simone2004}) rather than to clusterremnants. A possible explanation for the presence of younggroup/clusters in the same area of the UV-plane is that they have beenput there by the spiral wave associated with their formation, while thekinematics of the older stars of our sample has also been disturbed bythe same wave. The emerging picture is thus one of dynamical streamspervading the solar neighbourhood and travelling in the Galaxy withsimilar space velocities. The term dynamical stream is more appropriatethan the traditional term supercluster since it involves stars ofdifferent ages, not born at the same place nor at the same time. Theposition of those streams in the UV-plane is responsible for the vertexdeviation of 16.2o ± 5.6o for the wholesample. Our study suggests that the vertex deviation for youngerpopulations could have the same dynamical origin. The underlyingvelocity ellipsoid, extracted by the maximum-likelihood method afterremoval of the streams, is not centered on the value commonly acceptedfor the radial antisolar motion: it is centered on < U > =-2.78±1.07 km s-1. However, the full data set(including the various streams) does yield the usual value for theradial solar motion, when properly accounting for the biases inherent tothis kind of analysis (namely, < U > = -10.25±0.15 kms-1). This discrepancy clearly raises the essential questionof how to derive the solar motion in the presence of dynamicalperturbations altering the kinematics of the solar neighbourhood: doesthere exist in the solar neighbourhood a subset of stars having no netradial motion which can be used as a reference against which to measurethe solar motion?Based on observations performed at the Swiss 1m-telescope at OHP,France, and on data from the ESA Hipparcos astrometry satellite.Full Table \ref{taba1} is only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/430/165}

Boebachtungen von veranderlichen Sternen am Sonneberger Feld 67 Oph.
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Ergebnisse der Beobachtungen vom Sonneberger Feld kappa Ophiuchi.
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Synthetic Lick Indices and Detection of α-enhanced Stars. II. F, G, and K Stars in the -1.0 < [Fe/H] < +0.50 Range
We present an analysis of 402 F, G, and K solar neighborhood stars, withaccurate estimates of [Fe/H] in the range -1.0 to +0.5 dex, aimed at thedetection of α-enhanced stars and at the investigation of theirkinematical properties. The analysis is based on the comparison of 571sets of spectral indices in the Lick/IDS system, coming from fourdifferent observational data sets, with synthetic indices computed withsolar-scaled abundances and with α-element enhancement. We useselected combinations of indices to single out α-enhanced starswithout requiring previous knowledge of their main atmosphericparameters. By applying this approach to the total data set, we obtain alist of 60 bona fide α-enhanced stars and of 146 stars withsolar-scaled abundances. The properties of the detected α-enhancedand solar-scaled abundance stars with respect to their [Fe/H] values andkinematics are presented. A clear kinematic distinction betweensolar-scaled and α-enhanced stars was found, although a one-to-onecorrespondence to ``thin disk'' and ``thick disk'' components cannot besupported with the present data.

Empirical calibration of the near-infrared CaII triplet - IV. The stellar population synthesis models
We present a new evolutionary stellar population synthesis model, whichpredicts spectral energy distributions for single-age single-metallicitystellar populations (SSPs) at resolution 1.5 Å (FWHM) in thespectral region of the near-infrared CaII triplet feature. The mainingredient of the model is a new extensive empirical stellar spectrallibrary that has been recently presented by Cenarro et al., which iscomposed of more than 600 stars with an unprecedented coverage of thestellar atmospheric parameters.Two main products of interest for stellar population analysis arepresented. The first is a spectral library for SSPs with metallicities-1.7 < [Fe/H] < +0.2, a large range of ages (0.1-18 Gyr) andinitial mass function (IMF) types. They are well suited to modellinggalaxy data, since the SSP spectra, with flux-calibrated responsecurves, can be smoothed to the resolution of the observational data,taking into account the internal velocity dispersion of the galaxy,allowing the user to analyse the observed spectrum in its own system. Wealso produce integrated absorption-line indices (namely CaT*, CaT andPaT) for the same SSPs in the form of equivalent widths.We find the following behaviour for the CaII triplet feature in old-agedSSPs: (i) the strength of the CaT* index does not change much with timefor all metallicities for ages larger than ~3 Gyr; (ii) this index showsa strong dependence on metallicity for values below [M/H]~-0.5 and (iii)for larger metallicities this feature does not show a significantdependence either on age or on the metallicity, being more sensitive tochanges in the slope of power-like IMF shapes.The SSP spectra have been calibrated with measurements for globularclusters by Armandroff & Zinn, which are well reproduced, probingthe validity of using the integrated CaII triplet feature fordetermining the metallicities of these systems. Fitting the models totwo early-type galaxies of different luminosities (NGC 4478 and 4365),we find that the CaII triplet measurements cannot be fitted unless avery dwarf-dominated IMF is imposed, or if the Ca abundance is evenlower than the Fe abundance. More details can be found in work byCenarro et al.

Elements for 5 Variable Stars
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Meine Arbeit am Sonneberger Feld Kappa Ophiuchi.
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High-Precision Stellar Radial Velocities in the Galactic Center
We present radial velocities for 85 cool stars projected onto thecentral parsec of the Galaxy. The majority of these velocities haverelative errors of ~1 km s-1, or a factor of ~30-100 smallerthan those previously obtained with proper-motion or other radialvelocity measurements for a similar stellar sample. The error in atypical individual stellar velocity, including all sources ofuncertainty, is 1.7 km s-1. Two similar data sets wereobtained 1 month apart, and the total error in the relative velocitiesis 0.80 km s-1 in the case where an object is common to bothdata sets. The data are used to characterize the velocity distributionof the old population in the Galactic center. We find that the starshave a Gaussian velocity distribution with a mean heliocentric velocityof -10.1+/-11.0 km s-1 (blueshifted) and a standard deviationof 100.9+/-7.7 km s-1 the mean velocity of the sample isconsistent with no bulk line-of-sight motion with respect to the localstandard of rest. At the 1 σ level, the data are consistent with asymmetric velocity distribution about any arbitrary axis in the plane ofthe sky. We find evidence for a flattening in the distribution oflate-type stars within a radius of ~0.4 pc and infer a volume densitydistribution of r-1/4 in this region. Finally, we establish afirst epoch of radial velocity measurements that can be compared withsubsequent epochs to measure small accelerations (1 km s-1yr-1), corresponding to the magnitude expected over a timespan of several years for stars nearest to Sgr A*.Data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, whichis operated as a scientific partnership among the California Instituteof Technology, the University of California, and the NationalAeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possibleby the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry andnew optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT starslying in the overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the secondincremental Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) release, approximately 44%of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically accurate to 130 mas,the proper motions to 5.5 mas yr-1, and the V-J colors to0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3mas yr-1. The false-identification rate is ~1% for11<~V<~18 and substantially less at brighter magnitudes. Theseimprovements permit the construction of a reduced proper-motion diagramthat, for the first time, allows one to classify NLTT stars intomain-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs (WDs). We inturn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our catalog andthe NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popularbelief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almostcompletely concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detectedalmost uniformly over the sky δ>-33deg. Our catalogwill therefore provide a powerful tool to probe these populationsstatistically, as well as to reliably identify individual SDs and WDs.

Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: Spectroscopy of Stars Earlier than M0 within 40 Parsecs: The Northern Sample. I.
We have embarked on a project, under the aegis of the Nearby Stars(NStars)/Space Interferometry Mission Preparatory Science Program, toobtain spectra, spectral types, and, where feasible, basic physicalparameters for the 3600 dwarf and giant stars earlier than M0 within 40pc of the Sun. In this paper, we report on the results of this projectfor the first 664 stars in the northern hemisphere. These resultsinclude precise, homogeneous spectral types, basic physical parameters(including the effective temperature, surface gravity, and overallmetallicity [M/H]), and measures of the chromospheric activity of ourprogram stars. Observed and derived data presented in this paper arealso available on the project's Web site.

The Evolutionary State of Stars in the NGC 1333S Star Formation Region
We present 2 μm near-IR spectroscopic observations of a sample of 33objects in the NGC 1333S active star-forming cluster centered on thepre-main-sequence star SSV 13. We have previously studied this regionphotometrically in the optical and near-IR, and with the addition ofthese near-IR spectra, we further probe the pre-main-sequence clustermembership and evolutionary state. From the atomic and molecularabsorption features observed, together with the earlier photometry, wederive spectral types, effective temperatures, masses, and ages of thestars and conclude that almost all (90%) the stars observed in thissample are pre-main-sequence objects. This result significantly refinesthe evolutionary information obtained from photometric evidence alone.Comparison with theoretical evolutionary tracks and isochrones suggeststhat our survey has sampled sources with masses in the range 0.2-2Msolar and stellar ages between 7×104 and1×108 yr with a preponderance of sources around3×106 yr. This implies the presence of low- tointermediate-mass T Tauri stars of evolutionary designation Class I toClass III. We conclude that star formation seems to have occurred inlikely several bursts rather than occurring coevally. Star formation insuch a region as NGC 1333S is likely significantly affected by the largenumber of active molecular outflows in the region, which could provide amechanism for cloud turbulence and the onset of subsequent starformation.

Analysis of Chemical Abundances in the Atmospheres of Moderate Barium Stars
We used high-resolution spectra to compute model atmospheres to derivethe atmospheric abundances of moderate barium stars. Comparing ourresults with analogous data for normal red giants, we find that themoderate barium stars appear to not differ systematically from normalred giants. Their chemical abundance anomalies show the same patternsand can be interpreted in terms of evolutionary effects: theevolutionary stage, mass, luminosity, and metallicity of the objects.

A catalogue of calibrator stars for long baseline stellar interferometry
Long baseline stellar interferometry shares with other techniques theneed for calibrator stars in order to correct for instrumental andatmospheric effects. We present a catalogue of 374 stars carefullyselected to be used for that purpose in the near infrared. Owing toseveral convergent criteria with the work of Cohen et al.(\cite{cohen99}), this catalogue is in essence a subset of theirself-consistent all-sky network of spectro-photometric calibrator stars.For every star, we provide the angular limb-darkened diameter, uniformdisc angular diameters in the J, H and K bands, the Johnson photometryand other useful parameters. Most stars are type III giants withspectral types K or M0, magnitudes V=3-7 and K=0-3. Their angularlimb-darkened diameters range from 1 to 3 mas with a median uncertaintyas low as 1.2%. The median distance from a given point on the sky to theclosest reference is 5.2degr , whereas this distance never exceeds16.4degr for any celestial location. The catalogue is only available inelectronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr(130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/393/183

CHARM: A Catalog of High Angular Resolution Measurements
The Catalog of High Angular Resolution Measurements (CHARM) includesmost of the measurements obtained by the techniques of lunaroccultations and long-baseline interferometry at visual and infraredwavelengths, which have appeared in the literature or have otherwisebeen made public until mid-2001. A total of 2432 measurements of 1625sources are included, along with extensive auxiliary information. Inparticular, visual and infrared photometry is included for almost allthe sources. This has been partly extracted from currently availablecatalogs, and partly obtained specifically for CHARM. The main aim is toprovide a compilation of sources which could be used as calibrators orfor science verification purposes by the new generation of largeground-based facilities such as the ESO Very Large Interferometer andthe Keck Interferometer. The Catalog is available in electronic form atthe CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/386/492, and from theauthors on CD-Rom.

The properties of field elliptical galaxies at intermediate redshift - II. Photometry and spectroscopy of an HST-selected sample
A sample of field early-type galaxies (E/S0) at intermediate redshift(z~0.1-0.6) is selected, based on morphology and colours from HST-WFPC2parallel images. Photometric structural parameters (effective radiusRe and effective surface brightness SBe) arederived through the F606W and F814W filters, using luminosity profilefitting and two-dimensional fitting techniques. The combined parameterthat enters the Fundamental Plane(logRe-βSBe, with β~0.32) is shown tosuffer from significantly smaller uncertainties (rms 0.03) than theindividual structural parameters (e.g. ~15 per cent rms on the effectiveradius). High signal-to-noise ratio, intermediate-resolution spectra,taken at the ESO 3.6-m telescope, yield redshifts for 35 galaxies andcentral velocity dispersions for 22 galaxies. Central velocitydispersions are derived using a library of stellar templates covering awide range of spectral types, in order to study the effects of templatemismatches. The average random error on the central velocity dispersionis found to be 8 per cent, and the average systematic error caused bytemplate mismatch is found to be 5 per cent. The errors in the velocitydispersion measurement and the effects of template mismatches arestudied by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, weinvestigate whether the determination of the velocity dispersion issensitive to the spectral range used, finding that the value of velocitydispersion is unchanged when the spectral regions that include theabsorption features Ca H and K and NaD are masked out during the fit.

Absolute spectrophotometry of late-type stars.
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On the Photometric Variability of Red Clump Giants
Hipparcos photometry of the 308 red clump giants identified by Paczynskiet al. (1999) is investigated. These stars are found to be quite stableduring the three years of observation, but questions remain about longerterm stability.

On the Wilson-Bappu relationship in the Mg II k line
An investigation is carried out on the Wilson-Bappu effect in the Mg Iik line at 2796.34 Å. The work is based on a selection of 230 starsobserved by both the IUE and HIPPARCOS satellites, covering a wide rangeof spectral types (F to M) and absolute visual magnitudes (-5.4<=MV <=9.0). A semi-automatic procedure is used to measurethe line widths, which applies also in the presence of strong centralabsorption reversal. The Wilson-Bappu relationship here provided isconsidered to represent an improvement over previous recent results forthe considerably larger data sample used, as well as for a properconsideration of the measurement errors. No evidence has been found fora possible dependence of the WB effect on stellar metallicity andeffective temperature.

Long period variable stars: galactic populations and infrared luminosity calibrations
In this paper HIPPARCOS astrometric and kinematic data are used tocalibrate both infrared luminosities and kinematical parameters of LongPeriod Variable stars (LPVs). Individual absolute K and IRAS 12 and 25luminosities of 800 LPVs are determined and made available in electronicform. The estimated mean kinematics is analyzed in terms of galacticpopulations. LPVs are found to belong to galactic populations rangingfrom the thin disk to the extended disk. An age range and a lower limitof the initial mass is given for stars of each population. A differenceof 1.3 mag in K for the upper limit of the Asymptotic Giant Branch isfound between the disk and old disk galactic populations, confirming itsdependence on the mass in the main sequence. LPVs with a thin envelopeare distinguished using the estimated mean IRAS luminosities. The levelof attraction (in the classification sense) of each group for the usualclassifying parameters of LPVs (variability and spectral types) isexamined. Table only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/374/968 or via ASTRIDdatabase (http://astrid.graal.univ-montp2.fr).

Catalogue of Apparent Diameters and Absolute Radii of Stars (CADARS) - Third edition - Comments and statistics
The Catalogue, available at the Centre de Données Stellaires deStrasbourg, consists of 13 573 records concerning the results obtainedfrom different methods for 7778 stars, reported in the literature. Thefollowing data are listed for each star: identifications, apparentmagnitude, spectral type, apparent diameter in arcsec, absolute radiusin solar units, method of determination, reference, remarks. Commentsand statistics obtained from CADARS are given. The Catalogue isavailable in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp tocdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcar?J/A+A/367/521

Research Note Hipparcos photometry: The least variable stars
The data known as the Hipparcos Photometry obtained with the Hipparcossatellite have been investigated to find those stars which are leastvariable. Such stars are excellent candidates to serve as standards forphotometric systems. Their spectral types suggest in which parts of theHR diagrams stars are most constant. In some cases these values stronglyindicate that previous ground based studies claiming photometricvariability are incorrect or that the level of stellar activity haschanged. Table 2 is only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/367/297

The proper motions of fundamental stars. I. 1535 stars from the Basic FK5
A direct combination of the positions given in the HIPPARCOS cataloguewith astrometric ground-based catalogues having epochs later than 1939allows us to obtain new proper motions for the 1535 stars of the BasicFK5. The results are presented as the catalogue Proper Motions ofFundamental Stars (PMFS), Part I. The median precision of the propermotions is 0.5 mas/year for mu alpha cos delta and 0.7mas/year for mu delta . The non-linear motions of thephotocentres of a few hundred astrometric binaries are separated intotheir linear and elliptic motions. Since the PMFS proper motions do notinclude the information given by the proper motions from othercatalogues (HIPPARCOS, FK5, FK6, etc.) this catalogue can be used as anindependent source of the proper motions of the fundamental stars.Catalogue (Table 3) is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp tocdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strastg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/365/222

Photometric Variability in a Sample of 187 G and K Giants
We have used three automatic photoelectric telescopes to obtainphotometric observations of 187 G, K, and (a few) M0 field giants. Wefind low-amplitude photometric variability on timescales of days toweeks on both sides of the coronal dividing line (CDL) in a total of 81or 43% of the 187 giants. About one-third of the variables haveamplitudes greater than 0.01 mag in V. In our sample the percentage ofvariable giants is a minimum for late-G spectral classes and increasesfor earlier and later classes; all K5 and M0 giants are variable. Wealso obtained high-resolution, red wavelength spectroscopic observationsof 147 of the giants, which we used to determine spectralclassifications, vsini values, and radial velocities. We acquiredadditional high-resolution, blue wavelength spectra of 48 of the giants,which we used to determine chromospheric emission fluxes. We analyzedthe photometric and spectroscopic observations to identify the cause(s)of photometric variability in our sample of giants. We show that thelight variations in the vast majority of G and K giant variables cannotbe due to rotation. For giants on the cool side of the CDL, we find thatthe variability mechanism is radial pulsation. Thus, the variabilitymechanism operating in M giants extends into the K giants up to aboutspectral class K2. On the hot side of the CDL, the variability mechanismis most likely nonradial, g-mode pulsation.

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Observation and Astrometry data

Constellation:Ophiuchus
Right ascension:16h57m40.10s
Declination:+09°22'30.0"
Apparent magnitude:3.2
Distance:26.323 parsecs
Proper motion RA:-293
Proper motion Dec:-10.4
B-T magnitude:4.669
V-T magnitude:3.31

Catalogs and designations:
Proper NamesKappa Ophiuchi
  (Edit)
Bayerκ Oph
Flamsteed27 Oph
HD 1989HD 153210
TYCHO-2 2000TYC 979-2198-1
USNO-A2.0USNO-A2 0975-08699002
BSC 1991HR 6299
HIPHIP 83000

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