COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
       INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                    Number 911

                                   Konkoly Observatory
                                   Budapest
                                   1974 July 24



               CSV 1855 = HENIZE 782

  Lee (IBVS No. 813, 1973) has drawn attention to the suspected 
variable CSV 1855, listed by Wackerling (Mem.R.A.S. 73,
153, 1970) as the Be star Henize 782. Lee found emission lines
of hydrogen (H-alpha - H-delta) and Fe II, and drew comparison
with Merrill's iron star, XX Oph.
  Photometry of Hen 782 at the near-infrared wavelengths of
1.25 micron (J), 1.65 micron (H), 2.2 micron (K) and 3.5 micron (L) was 
secured on 1974 May 3.82 with the 1-metre Elizabeth II telescope
of the South African Astronomical Observatory; V was estimated
at 12 at the time of the observation:
K=4.70+-.05   J-K=2.32+-.07   H-K=1.16+-.07   K-L=1.39+-.08

The infrared observations indicate the presence of circumstellar
dust emission at a colour temperature of a little under 1300 K.
The star provides most of the flux at J but under half that at
H. Thus V-J~ 5 magnitudes, a value appropriate to an unreddened
M star or to an early-type star with A_V ~ 6.
  140 A/mm Carnegie image-tube plates of Hen 783 were taken
on May 15 and 16 with the 1.9 metre Radcliffe telescope. The two
spectrograms are very similar and show the following features:
Emission lines: The Balmer series is present as far as H_8. There
are more than 40 lines of Fe II and, as is often the case, multiplet 
42 is somewhat enhanced. Weak lines of He I may be present
and there is marginal evidence for [Fe II] and [O I]. The emission 
lines are rather broad and there appears to be a weak violet 
component to H-gamma displaced from the principal line by several
hundred km/sec.


Absorption lines: Ca II (H and K), Na I (D lines, not 
resolved) and a few TiO bands characterise the absorption 
spectrum which resembles that of an M star. Higher resolution is
necessary to accurately spectral type Hen 782 or to ascertain
whether a velocity difference exists between the absorption
and emission lines.
    Hen 782 is unusual in combining a low-excitation (Be-type)
emission-line spectrum, prominent late-type absorption features
in the visible, and circumstellar dust radiation in the 2 micron
region. To classify this star is difficult: it appears to be
intermediate between the VV Cephei stars, which show no dust
radiation, and the forbidden-line stars, for which the underlying 
visible spectrum is continuous.



                                       DAVID A. ALLEN
                               Royal Greenwich Observatory

                                  Herstmonceux Castle
                                Hailsham, Sussex, England