X-shooter, NACO, and AMBER observations of the LBV Pistol Star

We present multi-instrument and multi-wavelength observations of the famous LBV star Pistol Star. These observations are part of a larger program on early O stars at different metallicities. The Pistol Star has been claimed to be one of the most massive star known, with 250 solar masses. We present preliminary results based on X-shooter spectra, as well as observations performed with the VLTI-AMBER and the VLT-NACO adaptive optics. The X-shooter spectrograph provides simultaneously a spectrum from the UV to the K-band with a resolving power of ˜15000. The preliminary results obtained indicate that Pistol Star has similar properties to η Car, including shells of matter, but is also a binary

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula survey

The Tarantula survey is an ESO Large Programme which has obtained multi- epochs spectroscopy of over 800 massive stars in the 30 Dor region in the Large Magelanic Cloud. Here we briefly describe the main drivers of the survey and the observational material derived