Carbon stars in the X-Shooter Spectral Library

We make use of the unique character of the ESO X-shooter spectrograph to study a sample of carbon stars from the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. We compare our observations with a recent series of state-of-the-art synthetic spectra. The aim is to validate the models across the broad wavelength range from ultraviolet to near-infrared, to estimate fundamental stellar parameters, and in the end to allow more robust constraints on stellar populations in galaxies.