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H. Lee, E. D. Skillman (Univ. of Minnesota), K. A. Venn (Macalester College; Univ. of Minnesota)
NGC~6822 is a nearby dwarf irregular galaxy (D \approx 0.5~Mpc) within the Local Group, whose stellar content has been well-studied. Recent work on the abundances of individual supergiant stars in this galaxy in combination with published H~II region abundances suggested the existence of a radial abundance gradient, seen more typically in spiral galaxies (Venn et al. 2001). We present new optical spectroscopy of twelve H~II regions in NGC~6822 obtained with EFOSC2 at ESO. With our available spectra and a reexamination of the literature, we investigate the following: (1) possible discrepancies in nebular abundances, (2) the presence of an abundance gradient, (3) a comparison of stellar and H~II region abundances, and (4) whether there is any dispersion in abundances at a given radius.
H.L. and E.D.S. acknowledge partial support from a NASA LTSARP grant NAG~5--9221 and the University of Minnesota. K.A.V. would like to thank the National Science Foundation for support through a CAREER award AST~99--84073.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.