Crowded-field photometry from HST-imaging

We present a thorough investigation of stellar photometry based on HST imaging of crowded fields at 85 and 10 arcsec from the centre of the high-surface brightness elliptical M32. The Principal Investigators of the present archive data have elsewhere presented an impressive colour-magnitude diagram of the field at 85 arcsec. Based on the same data we enlarge on their photometric analysis and supplement with error estimators that more clearly show the implications of severe image crowding on the stellar photometry. We show that the faintest stars (I>25.0, V>26.0) are found too bright by several tens of a magnitude. For the field at 10 arcsec we conclude that it is not possible to obtain reliable stellar photometry, standard deviations being larger than 0.4 mag. Artificial-star experiments show that only very few of the brightest stars of the luminosity function can be expected to represent single objects, the majority being either spurious or not as bright as measured.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Novel, Travel-Writing and Nation : Studies in Selma Lagerlöf and Hans Christian Andersen

The overarching focus of the portfolio of publications I have submitted for the PhD by Research Publications is the treatment of place - in particular the mapping and problematisation of nation space - in Selma Lagerlofs and Hans Christian Andersen's novel- and travel-writing. Through a consideration of selected texts it is argued that manifestations of mobility, modernity and hybridity contribute centrally to the articulation of place in the works of both writers. It is further argued that the majority of the texts themselves display hybrid features, challenging the boundary between 'fictional' novel-writing and 'factual' travel-writing and combining a commitment to the 'real' with a recurring interest in the imagined.In all, the submitted publications on Lagerlof and Andersen may be seen as contributions to the reassessment of two Scandinavian cultural figures of 'world literature' status, highlighting proto-modernist aspects of their oeuvre as well as some reductive patterns in their reception history