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We present Washington photometry of the giant branches of the relatively metal-rich globular cluster NGC 6388 and compare it with 47 Tuc. By examining the spatial distribution of stellar colors across the red giant branch and using spectroscopic data on several bright giants, we found that NGC 6388's center is affected by differential reddening of at least ΔE(B - V) ~ 0.1. Most of the width of the red giant branch is caused by that differential reddening. The southeastern outer regions of the cluster seem to be less affected by variable dust extinction, and we find that NGC 6388 is slightly more metal-rich than 47 Tuc, with a distinct asymptotic giant branch. We have put an upper limit on possible variations in [Fe/H] for NGC 6388, finding that it must be less than ~0.2 dex. It is unlikely that such a small range in metallicity could be responsible for the blue horizontal branch and blue tail stars in a cluster with a metallicity similar to the more massive 47 Tuc, which only exhibits a red horizontal branch.

We have observed (with vby filters) a field north of the core of the most massive globular cluster in our galaxy, ω Centauri. We have found a correlation of age and metallicity in a region that avoids the dense core and the inhomogeneous foreground dust emission shown by IRAS. Our observations show that the comparatively metal-rich stars (as defined by the b-y and m1 colors) are younger than the metal-poor stars by at least 3 Gyr. This correlation of metallicity with age suggests that ω Cen has enriched itself over a timescale of about 3 Gyr, and possibly longer. It is remarkable that ejecta from stellar winds combined with supernovae of Type II failed to disperse the cluster's interstellar matter at an earlier epoch but were captured by the cluster instead. Star formation would have ceased as Type Ia supernovae dispersed the remaining interstellar matter. This work and other recent evidence suggests that ω Cen could have been part of a small satellite galaxy in which all the activity occurred before it was captured by the Milky Way.

We use photometric and spectroscopic observations of 31 field stars in Lupus to determine the distance to the dark clouds. A plot of extinction vs distance for the field stars indicates a distance of 140±20 pc to the Lupus clouds, which is at the lower end of the range defined by previous estimates. One of the field stars has weak Hα emission and a far-infrared excess, indicating that it is a previously uncatalogued pre-main-sequence star

Photometric and spectroscopic observations of the classical T Tauri stars in the Chamaeleon II dark cloud are rpesented. The distance to Cha II is 200 ± 20 pc, based on a plot of extinction versus distance for field stars seen against the cloud. The ages of the pre-main-sequence stars in Cha II range between 10 5 and 10 7 yr. The stellar population of the Cha II cloud consists mostly of low mass stars, at least 17 of the 19 known T Tauri stars in Cha II have masses less than 1M ⊙ . The only intermediate mass star in the cloud is IRAS 12496-7650, a highly embedded Herbig Ae star

Optical and near-infrared observations of IRAS 12496-7650, an active young star and the most luminous IRAS source in the Chameleon II dark cloud, are presented. Infrared variability and optical properties are analysed. IRAS 12496-7650 is proposed as a Herbig Ae star