COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      NUMBER 570

                               Konkoly Observatory
                               Budapest
                               1971 July 15


  IDENTIFICATION AND SPECTRUM OF THE NEW VARIABLE
                 IN SERPENS

      Stienon (1971) has reported finding a peculiar new
emission-line variable of type K, and Hidajat (1971) has
described its spectrum on objective-prism plates taken at
Bosscha Observatory. It is clear from the coordinates and
finding chart given by Stienon that the variable is identical 
to the star BD-10d4662. We have a short-exposure direct
plate which confirms the identity of the variable as marked
in Stienon's finding chart with the BD star.
      Four objective-prism plates are aviable here taken
with the Curtis Schmidt-type telescope of The University of
Michigan. Two of these are in the red region (dispersion of
420 A/mm at Halpha.) with dates of 1965 July 21 and 1969 July
24, and both show the presence of moderately strong Halpha 
emission on a non-banded spectrum, The third plate is on IN
emulsion behind a W89B filter at very low dispersion (about
3500A/mm at the A-band) and shows only that there are no
molecular bands in the near-infrared spectrum as was pointed 
out by-Hidajat. The fourth plate is IIa-O with a dispersion 
of 110 A/mm at Hgamma and a limiting m_pg of about 11; the
plate was taken on 1969 June 19. The spectrum of the variable 
is weakly exposed, and the blueward portion (lambda<4100A)
is contaminated by the spectrum of a faint M star 11' north
of the variable. The absorption spectrum of the variable is
that of a dwarf star of type about K5, and Hbeta is weakly
present in emission. It is not possible to tell whether
CaII is in emission. The star is not present in the catalogues 
of stars of large proper motion nor in the catalogues 
of nearby stars.
      Stienon has pointed out the possible similarity
this star to Popper's flare star, BY Dra. Other possibly
similar stars are AS 216 (Merrill and Burwell 1950;
=CoD-27d11363) and AS 292 (=HD319139=CoD-32d13906).
Bidelman (1954, Table 11) gives types of dK0e and dK5e,
respectively, for these stars. Neither of these stars is
known to vary in light. BY Dra, AS 216, and AS 292 show
bright lines of CaII; a well-exposed slit spectrogram of
BD-10d 4662 might also reveal emission at H and K.

                             D.J. Mac Connell
                          Department of Astronomy
                        The University of Michigan
                        Physics-Astronomy Building
                        Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
                               U.S.A.



References

Bidelman, W.P. (1954) Ap.J. Suppl. 1, 175. [BIBCODE 1954ApJS....1..175B ]
Hidajat, B. (1971) Inf. Bull. Var. Stars No. 559,
Merrill, P.W. and Burwell, C.G. (1950) Ap. J. 112, 72. [BIBCODE 1950ApJ...112...72M ]
Stienon, F.M. (1971) Inf. Bull. Var. Stars No. 545,