COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                  NUMBER 829

	                              Konkoly Observatory
        	                      Budapest
                	              1973 September 22


  NOTE ON THE PERIOD OF THE PULSATING VARIABLE V 477 Oph


The variable V 477 Oph was discovered by Hoffmeister (1943 Kl.
Veroff.Babelsberg No. 28). Using 16 times of maximum he classified
the variable as a cepheid with a period of 1.9729d. Recently Mandel
(1970 Per.Zv. 17, 347) made new photographic observations of this
star and found that Hoffmeister's period was in error. According
to Mandel it should be 2.015702d. Moreover, he found that in order
to fit Hoffmeister's epochs, a considerable change in the period
had occurred around 1940.
A closer investigation of Mandel's observations learned, however, 
that two other periods, shorter than a day fit as well as
the 2.015702d period. In the accompanying table the four concerned
periods have been listed together with their reciprocals, to show
their relationships.

Period in days            	Reciprocal   Reference
1.9729                    	0.50687      Hoffmeister
2.015702                  	0.49611      Mandel
0.6683978                 	1.49612      first alternative
0.4001835                 	2.49885      second alternative

In the course of a running investigation on UBV photometry of
Population II cepheids with periods between 1 and 3 days, the present 
author also observed this variable on 8 nights between 21 and
30 August 1973 at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in
Chile. On 7 nights the star was observed over a period of 4 hours.
The period of the variable allowed the cover of only two stretches
in the phase of the light variation for a large number of cycles.
In the accompanying figure, provisional V magnitudes have been
plotted against the phases of the three concerned periods. Regarding
the slopes of the observed stretches in the phase, one can see, that
the period of 0.6683978d is the most likely one of the three. Moreover
when this period is adopted, there appears to be no need for assuming
a substantial change in the period in order to fit Hoffmeister's early 
epochs of maximum. Therefore, one may safely conclude, that V477 Oph
is in fact an RR Lyrae variable with a period of 0.6683978d.
More detailed information of the observations will appear in a 
future publication elsewhere.


                         [FIGURE 1]


European Southern Observatory,   K.K. KWEE
La Silla, Chile                  Sterrewacht
3 September, 1973.               Leiden