Kenneth C. Freeman

NGC 1705. I - Stellar populations and mass loss via a galactic wind

A detailed multi-waveband study of the galaxy NGC 1705 is presented. The data include optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy, optical and infrared photoelectric aperture photometry, narrowband and broadband images, H I spectra, and data from the IRAS point source catalog. NGC 1705 is shown to be a nearby nucleated blue compact dwarf galaxy. It contains two stellar populations, distinct in structure and color : an inner high surface brightness population with a radius of 500 pc, and a relatively low surface-brightness population extending out to a radius of at least 1.56 kpc

Shrouds of the Night - Galaxies and René Magritte

In this review, we focus on a word which appears in the title of these conference proceedings: the term “galaxy”. We highlight the treachery of photographic or digital images of galaxies, by introducing the work of the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte. We discuss his famous painting “The Treachery of Images” (La trahison des images, 1929), which portrays a pipe. Below it, Magritte painted these words, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”). The painting is not a physical pipe, but rather a representation of a pipe. And so it is with galaxies and their masks: what we see is only a representation of what actually constitutes a galaxy. The definition of a galaxy given in the Hubble Atlas beautifully portrays the treachery of photographic images of galaxies, being then defined as closed dynamical systems, or island universes.