We present VLT-FORS1 color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) reaching the oldest main-sequence turnoffs for three fields at two galactocentric distances in the Fornax dSph galaxy. We derive the star formation history (SFH) for each field through comparison with synthetic CMDs and show that the main epoch of star formation has extended to more recent epochs

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Early-type (E/SO) galaxies follow tight relations such as the Fundamental Plane, the Color-Magnitude Relation or the Mg2-σ relation (Bender et al. 1992). However little is known about the relation between their morphological shapes and stellar populations (Conselice 2003), most likely because these two fields rely on methods that have grown up

At less than 4 Mpc away, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the nearest massive elliptical galaxy, the nearest radio galaxy, and the nearest recent merger. It is the ideal laboratory to study the connection between merging, massive black holes, the source of radio jets and merger-induced star formation in detail. Using NAOS-CONICA, guiding on the dust

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We report on the distribution of metallicities, [Fe/H], for very metal-poor stars in the halo of the Galaxy. Although the primary information on the nature of the Metallicity Distribution Function (MDF) is obtained from the two major recent surveys for metal-poor stars, the HK survey of Beers and collaborators, and the Hamburg/ESO Survey of