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P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), P. W. Hodge (U. Wash.), G. H. Jacoby (WIYN), N. L. King (STScI), K. A. G. Olson (CTIO/NOAO), A. Saha (KPNO/NOAO), C. Smith (CTIO/NOAO)
The galaxies of the Local Group serve as our laboratories for understanding star formation and stellar evolution in differing environments: the galaxies currently active in star-formation in the Local Group cover a factor of 10 in metallicity and span a range of Hubble types from dwarf spheroidal to Irr to Sb and Sc. We are conducting a uniform survey (UBVRI, Halpha, [SII], and [OIII]) of nearby galaxies selected on the basis of current star formation. In the Local Group, this sample includes M31, M33, NGC6822, IC1613, IC10, WLM, Pegasus, and Phoenix; we exclude the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, which are being surveyed separately by several groups. We also include Sextans A and Sextans B, located just beyond the Local Group (see van den Bergh 2000, The Galaxies of the Local Group). Using the new, wide-field Mosaic cameras on the KPNO and CTIO 4-m telescopes, we will produce catalogs of UBVRI photometry of roughly 100 million stars, using Halpha, [SII], and [OIII] to distinguish bona fide stellar members from compact H~II regions. This on-line catalog will answer a number of scientific questions directly, but we believe that the real strength of this survey will be in the science we will enable with 8-10-m class telescopes and the capability of follow-up spectroscopy. In addition, the calibrated images will provide a detailed, uniform atlas of both the stellar and ionized gas components of these galaxies, which will certainly prove useful for a host of other projects. Here we present some of our first images and give a progress report.
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