COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
            INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                        Number 1188

                                    Konkoly Observatory
                                    Budapest
                                    1976 October 14

                   HD 174237 (MWC 608)


     Recently Merlin (1975) disclosed that the bright B emission 
star HD 174237 (alpha: 18h44.4m, delta:+52d53',1900) displays variations 
in U,B,V larger than 0.1 mag. These changes were reported
to have no true periodicity, only 7-12 days cycle. In the past
radial velocities of this star were measured by Plaskett et al.
(1920). The amplitude of the radial velocity was about 95 km/sec,
but no period has been established. Lacoarret (1965) studied the
hydrogen emission profiles of MWC 608. She described two types
of variations: long term (3 years) and short term (5-7 days).
Merlin (1975) pointed out that the photometric changes in U,B,V
might be correlated to short term line profile variations.
     HD 174237 was observed with the 2 m telescope of the
Ondrejov Observatory during May - October 1975 and April-July
1976. About 30 coude spectrograms (8 and 16 Angstrom/mm) were obtained.
The spectra have been taken on IIaOb emulsion and cover the wavelength 
region from 3600 to 4970 Angstrom.
     Radial velocities of seven helium lines (3819.6, 4009.3,
4026.2, 4143.8, 4387.9, 4471.5, and 4921.9 Angstrom) were measured on
28 plates taken within the interval of 900 days. Velocities 
derived from the position of the He I lines were checked by a program 
for finding periods. The best fit is 6.691 days. The observations 
are assembled in a velocity/phase diagram in Figure 1.
     The periodicity of the helium radial velocities strongly
supports the idea that Be star MWC 608 is a spectroscopic binary.



                            PAVEL KOUBSKY
                        Astronomical Institute
                        of the Czechoslovak Academy 
                        of Sciences; Ondrejov Observatory

References:

Lacoarret, M. 1965, Ann.Astrophys. 28, 321 [BIBCODE 1965AnAp...28..321L ]
Merlin, P. 1975, Astron.Astrophys. 39, 139 [BIBCODE 1975A&A....39..139M ]
Plaskett, J.S., Harper, W.E., Young, R.K., Plaskett, H.H. 1920, Publ.
       Dominion Astrophys.Obs. Victoria 1, 287 [BIBCODE 1921PDAO....1..287P ]


                        [FIGURE 1]