A deep and wide-field view at the IC 2944 / 2948 complex in Centaurus
  We employed the ESO MPI wide-field camera and obtained deep images in the VIc
pass-bands in the region of the IC 2944/2948 complex (l ~ 294; b ~ -1), and
complemented them with literature and archival data. We used this material to
derive the photometric, spectroscopic and kinematic properties of the brightest
(V < 16) stars in the region. The VI deep photometry on the other end, helped
us to unravel the lower main sequence of a few, possibly physical, star groups
in the area.
  Our analysis confirmed previous suggestions that the extinction toward this
line of sight follows the normal law (Rv = 3.1). We could recognize B-type
stars spread in distance from a few hundred pc to at least 2 kpc. We found two
young groups (age ~ 3 Myr) located respectively at about 2.3 and 3.2 kpc from
the Sun. They are characterized by a significant variable extinction (E(B-V)
ranging from 0.28 to 0.45 mag), and host a significant pre-main sequence
population. We computed the initial mass functions for these groups and
obtained slopes Gamma from -0.94 to -1.02 (e_Gamma = 0.3), in a scale where the
classical Salpeter law is -1.35. We estimated the total mass of both main
stellar groups in ~ 1100$ and ~ 500$ Mo, respectively. Our kinematic analysis
indicated that both groups of stars deviate from the standard rotation curve of
the Milky Way, in line with literature results for this specific Galactic
direction.
  Finally, along the same line of sight we identified a third group of
early-type stars located at ~ 8 kpc from the Sun. This group might be located
in the far side of the Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm.
