COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     NUMBER 275

                                    Konkoly Observatory
                                    Budapest
                                    1968 May 21


       THREE FLARE STARS FOUND SPECTROSCOPICALLY


Inspection of a series of Kodak IIaO objectiveprism plates taken with the
Warner and Swasey Observatory uv prism (580 A/mm at H gamma) atteched to the
Curtis Schmidt telescope on Cerro Tololo in Chile has revealed three flare
stars in the region of the Coal Sack which appear to be previously unknown.
Each star is identified as a flare star on the basis of the emergence of the
Balmer series and the K-line (Ca II) in emission at a single epoch and the
complete absence of any emission on a plate of similar depth taken at one other
epoch.

In the case of star 1, the 0.2 mm trailed with of the spectrum during a 60
minute exposure permitted actual time resolution of the flare which had a
duration of about 20 minutes. A very strong enhancement of the continuum is
also obvious in this spectrum. For stars 2 and 3 the duration of the flares
must have exceeded the respective exposure times of 30 and 11 minutes, since
the emission lines are of nearly uniform strength across the widened spectra.
Star 3 was found by Dr. C.B. Stephenson on a plate which is part of a
collection being used in an OB star survey of the southern Milky Way.

Star         (1900)          t (J.D.)        m_pg
1      12^h25.^m2 -65d 17'   2,439,914.780   14.7
2      12  59.4   -61  40          921.763   12.7
3      13  27.5   -62  43          912.781   15.5


                          [FIGURE 1]

The coordinates are given in the table. The fourth column gives the starting
time of the exposure during which the flare was detected. The last column
contains estimates of the quiescent magnitudes of the stars obtained by
measuring image diameters on a chart of the southern (Mt. John Observatory)
extension of the Lick Sky Atlas which Dr. C.D. Shane kindly furnished to us
in advance of publication. The SA 194 sequence of Vehrnberg (1) was used for
calibration. The probable errors of these values are about +-0.5 mag.

The continuum in the quiescent spectrum of star 2 appears to be that of a
late-type star although a spectral plate covering the red region (103aF) shows
that it is not of M-type.


N. SANDULEAK
Warner and Swasey Observatory

(1) Atlas of Selected Areas (Hardward-Groningen), Southern Part, 1966.