COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U. INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS NUMBER 799 Konkoly Observatory Budapest 1973 May 26 THE NON-EXISTENCE OF NOVA CARINAE 1970 Knigge (IBVS No. 765 1973) has reported the appearance of a probable nova = BV 1543 Car from sky patrol plates taken with the 10- inch Metcalf telescope at Boyden Observatory, South Africa. His plate material shows a brightening of the star, from m_pg =15.2 to 12.4, between 1969 Mar. 23 and 1970 Feb. 7 and then a steady decrease in brightness back to m_pg =15.2 by late March 1970. From this material it was presumed that the variable was a nova and that the maximum had probably been missed occurring between the first two dates above. From spectrum plates available at this Observatory it is clear that this star is actually a long-period variable of spectral type M. We have available five 10deg objective-prism plates of this region obtained with the University of Michigan's Curtis Schmidt-type telescope situated at Cerro Tololo, Chile. The table below summarizes the data for these plates and the appearance of the variable; the dispersions are 108A mm^-1 and 420A mm^-1 at H_gamma and H_alpha, respectively. U.T. Date Emulsion Filter Appearance ----------------------------- 1968 May 28 IIa-O - fainter than plate limit(m_pg~>11.5) 1970 Feb. 13 IIa-O - H_gamma, delta emission; very faint TiO band heads 1970 Mar. 9 IIa-O - H_gamma, delta very faint; no continuum 1971 Feb. 18 IIa-F RG 1 fainter than plate limit(m_r~>12) 1972 Mar. 21 098-02 RG 1 m_r ~ 10; type M4 or M5 ---------------------------- That this long-period variable is, in fact, identical to BV 1543 Car is clear from comparison of the field with the chart given by Knigge. The emission lines on our February 1970 plate are of equal strength implying that the star was 0.2 to 0.3 phase past maximum at that time (Merrill, P.W.: "Spectra of Long-Period Variable Stars" p. 53.) Department of Astronomy The University of Michigan D. J. MacConnell