SS433 is the prototype microquasar in the Galaxy and may even be analogous to the ULX sources if the jets kinetic energy is taken into account. However, in spite of 20 years of study, our constraints on the natur of the binary system are extremely limited as a result of the difficulty of locating spectral features that can reveal the nature and motion of the mass donor. Newly acquired, high resolution blue spectra taken when the (precessing) disc is edge-on suggest that the binary is close to a common-envelope phase, and hence providing kinematic constraints is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, we do find evidence for a massive donor, as expected for the inferred very high mass transfer rate, and we compare SS433's properties with those of Cyg X-3.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) of long duration probably result from the core-collapse of massive stars in binary systems. After the collapse of the primary star the binary system may remain bound leaving a microquasar or ULX source as remnant. In this context, microquasars and ULXs are fossils of GRB sources and should contain physical and astrophysical clues on their GRB-source progenitors. Here I show that the identification of the birth place of microquasars can provide constrains on the progenitor stars of compact objects, and that the runaway velocity can be used to constrain the energy in the explosion of massive stars that leave neutron stars and black holes. The observations show that the neutron star binaries LS 5039, LSI +61°303 and the low-mass black hole GRO J1655-40 formed in energetic supernova explosions, whereas the black holes of larger masses (M ≥ 10 M⊙) in Cygnus X-l and GRS 1915+105 formed promptly, in the dark or in underluminous supornovao. The association with clusters of massive stars of the microquasar LSI +61°303 and the magnetars SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, suggest that very massive stars (M ≥ 50 M⊙) may -in some cases- leave neutron stars rather than black holes. The models of GRB sources of long duration have the same basic ingredients as microquasars and ULXs: compact objects with accretion disks and relativistic jets in binary systems. Therefore, the analogies between microquasars and AGN may be extended to the sources of GRBs.

This paper will review a new technique of detecting companion stars in LMXBs and X-ray transients in outburst using the Bowen fluorescence NIII lines at 4634-4640. These lines are very efficiently reprocessed in the atmospheres of the companion stars and, thereby, provide estimates of the K2 velocities and mass functions. The method has been applied to Sco X-1, X1822-371 and GX339-4 which, in the latter case, provides dynamical evidence for the presence of an accreting black hole. Preliminary results from a VLT campaign on V801 Ara, V926 Sco and XTE J1814-338 are also presented.