The goal of this project is to validate, for the first time, methods using integrated spectra to derive the properties of stellar populations (including star-formation history (SFH), stellar mass, age, and metallicity). The validity and strength of such methods have been demonstrated for star clusters hosting single stellar populations, but not for objects as complex as galaxies. We are obtaining optical integrated spectra for a sample of nearby resolved dwarf galaxies with existing archival HST imaging data. These spectra will be used to estimate the SFH, which will be compared with the SFH derived from HST resolved color-magnitude diagrams. This will provide a proper reference for any unresolved stellar population.
Observations are ongoing at GEMINI north and south with GMOS-N and GMOS-S (respectively 15h and 5h awarded) and VLT-UT4 with VIMOS-IFU (43h granted).
