We present results of optical broad-band and narrow-band Halpha observations of a sample of forty nearby early-type galaxies. The majority of sample galaxies are known to have dust in various forms viz. dust lanes, nuclear dust and patchy/filamentary
dust. A detailed study of dust was performed for 12 galaxies with prominent dust features. The extinction curves for these galaxies run parallel to the Galactic extinction curve, implying that the properties of dust in these galaxies are similar to those of the Milky-Way. The ratio of total to selective extinction (Rv) varies between 2.1 and 3.8, with an average of 2.9 +/- 0.2, fairly close to its canonical value of 3.1 for our Galaxy. The average relative grain size <a>/a_Gal of dust particles in these galaxies turns out to be 1.01 +/- 0.2, while dust mass estimated using optical extinction lies in the range 10^2 to 10^4 M(sun) . The Halpha emission was detected in 23 out of 29 galaxies imaged through narrow- band filters with the Halpha luminosities in the range 10^38 - 10^41 erg s^-1. The mass of the ionized gas is in the range 10^3-10^5 M(sun). The morphology and extent of ionized gas is found similar to those of dust, indicating possible coexistence of dust and ionized gas in these galaxies. The absence of any apparent correlation between blue luminosity and normalized IRAS dust mass is suggestive of merger related origin of dust and gas in these galaxies.
Optical $UBVRI$ photometry and medium resolution spectroscopy of the type Ib supernova SN 2009jf, during the period $sim -15$ to +250days with respect to the $B$ maximum are reported. The light curves are broad, with an extremely slow decline. The ea
rly post-maximum decline rate in the $V$ band is similar to SN 2008D, however, the late phase decline rate is slower than other studied type Ib supernovae. With an absolute magnitude of $M_{V} = -17.96pm0.19$ magnitude at peak, SN 2009jf is a normally bright supernova. The peak bolometric luminosity and the energy deposition rate via $^{56}$Ni $rightarrow$ $^{56}$Co chain indicate that $sim {0.17}^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$ M$_{odot}$ of $^{56}$Ni was ejected during the explosion. He,I 5876 AA line is clearly identified in the first spectrum of day $sim -15$, at a velocity of $sim 16000$ km sec$^{-1}$. The [O,I] 6300-6364 AA line seen in the nebular spectrum has a multi-peaked and asymmetric emission profile, with the blue peak being stronger. The estimated flux in this line implies $ga 1.34$ M$_odot$ oxygen was ejected. The slow evolution of the light curves of SN 2009jf indicates the presence of a massive ejecta. The high expansion velocity in the early phase and broader emission lines during the nebular phase suggest it to be an explosion with a large kinetic energy. A simple qualitative estimate leads to the ejecta mass of M$_{rm ej} = 4-9$ M$_odot$, and kinetic energy E$_{rm K} = 3-8 times 10^{51}$ erg. The ejected mass estimate is indicative of an initial main-sequence mass of $ga 20- 25$ M$_odot$.
We present an analysis of the optical night sky brightness and extinction coefficient measurements in UBVRI at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), Hanle, during the period 2003-2008. They are obtained from an analysis of CCD images acquired at
the 2 m Himalayan Chandra Telescope at IAO. Night sky brightness was estimated using 210 HFOSC images obtained on 47 nights and covering the declining phase of solar activity cycle-23. The zenith corrected values of the moonless night sky brightness in mag/square arcsecs are 22.14(U), 22.42(B), 21.28(V), 20.54(R) and 18.86(I) band. This shows that IAO is a dark site for optical observations. No clear dependency of sky brightness with solar activity is found. Extinction values at IAO are derived from an analysis of 1325 images over 58 nights. They are found to be 0.36 in U-band, 0.21 in B-band, 0.12 in V-band, 0.09 in R-band and 0.05 in I-band. On average, extinction during the summer months is slightly larger than that during the winter months. No clear evidence for a correlation between extinction in all bands and the average night time wind speed is found. Also presented here is the low resolution moonless optical night sky spectrum for IAO covering the wavelength range 3000-9300 AA. Hanle region thus has the required characteristics of a good astronomical site in terms of night sky brightness and extinction, and could be a natural candidate site for any future large aperture Indian optical-infrared telescope(s).
We present $UBVRI$ CCD photometry and optical spectra of the type Ia supernova SN 2003hx which appeared in the galaxy NGC 2076, obtained till $sim$ 146 days after the epoch of $B$ band maximum. The supernova reached at maximum brightness in $B$ band
on JD 245 2893 $pm$ 1.0 with an apparent magnitude of 14.92 $pm$ 0.01 mag which was estimated by making template fits to the light curves. SN 2003hx is an example of a highly reddened supernova with $E(B-V)$ = 0.56 $pm$ 0.23. We estimate $R_v$ = 1.97 $pm$ 0.54 which indicates the small size of dust particles as compared to their galactic counterparts. The luminosity decline rate is $Delta m_{15}(B)$ = 1.17 $pm$ 0.12 mag and the absolute $B$ band magnitude obtained from the luminosity versus decline rate relation (Phillips et al. 1999) is $M^B_{max}$ = -19.20 $pm$ 0.18 mag. The peak bolometric luminosity indicates that $sim$ 0.66 $M_odot$ mass of $^{56}$ Ni was ejected by the supernova. The spectral evolution indicates the supernova to be a normal type Ia event.
