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Session 83 - Elliptical Galaxies.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
We present high resolution spectra of six low-luminosity early-type galaxies. Low-luminosity systems provide an unparalleled opportunity for detailed spectral synthesis as their low intrinsic line broadening preserves a wealth of useful spectral information, but to capitalize on this natural benefit requires a high resolution spectral library with which to compare the galaxies. This is now possible using a new library of \sim750 stars collected during 1994-1995 at KPNO with the coude feed spectrograph. By examining the galaxy spectra in relation to one another and with respect to the stellar spectra we demonstrate how strong constraints can be placed on the galaxy stellar populations. Properties such as mean metal abundance and the relative contribution of dwarf and giant light in the spectra are investigated for the current sample of galaxies: M32, NGC 3605, NGC 4339, NGC 4464, NGC 4489, and UGC 9519.
