Our Supermassive Black Hole: Sgr A^*

• The trouble with ground-based observations
  and the power of adaptive optics using laser guide stars
• Stellar orbits: Munich group, UCLA group; orbits in 3D!
• Implications
• Milky Way quiescence versus activity of, e.g., M87
• Ongoing: Galactic weather forecast: infall of gas clouds
• the future: resolving the shadow with the Event Horizon Telescope
  • the VLBI technique
  • expectations: will we see this?
• hypervelocity stars such as this one

Globular Clusters

• Vital statistics
• Exemplars
  • M3, zoom
  • 47 Tuc, zoom
  • omega Cen and its center
  • M15
• cluster discovery in Galactic plane
• Structure: density profiles
• Classes

Globular Cluster HR Diagrams

• example (source)
• Colorized schematic
• H-R diagram animation--watch 'em evolve!
  another animation
• Theory fits: isochrones = HR curves for different ages (source)

Tides and Stripping

• Tidal forces
• Tidal stripping
• Caught in the act
  • globular cluster Palomar 5
  • the Magellanic stream at 21 cm
  • interacting galaxies

Virial Theorem

Globular Cluster Evaporation