COMMISSION 27 OF THE I.A.U.
              INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                           Number 1218

                                             Konkoly Observatory
                                             Budapest
                                             1976 December 16


                THE SPECTRUM OF WX HYDRI

WX Hyi is now classified as a U Gem star in accord with
its photometric behavior (IBVS 1185) and color indices (IAUC
2348). Philip (IAUC 2308) first correctly noted its blue color, 
rapid light variations and emission-line spectrum on a low-
dispersion objective-prism plate. More recently, on J.D.
2442742.6, we observed the spectrum using the Carnegie imagetube 
Cassegrain spectrograph on the 1 meter Yale telescope at
the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The dispersion was
125 A mm^-1 and the coverage from about lambda3500 to lambda6700. The star
appeared to be near minimum light (m_B~13), requiring an exposure
of 94 minutes on baked Kodak IIa-O emulsion.
   On this low-resolution spectrogram, the Balmer series is
seen in emission down to H_9 with the lines having a width of
about 12 A and giving no indication of duplicity. The emission
is only moderately strong relative to the continuum and the 
decrement is nearly flat, a common spectral characteristic of
dwarf novae. However, a peculiarity is that H-alpha appears much
weaker than expected from the strength of the other Balmer lines
and the known wavelength response of the image-tube. No emission
lines other than those of hydrogen are evident and no strong
absorption features are present.
   The broad lines preclude an accurate radial velocity
measurement, but we can conclude that the radial velocity probably 
does not exceed 50 km sec-1 and may be much smaller. This
dispels any lingering suspicion that WX Hyi could be associated
with the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud. The star does not appear
in the BPM catalog of Luyten, suggesting a small proper motion.
If one assumes that WX Hyi (galactic latitude b=-51.6deg) has a z 
distance comparable to the average shown by the brighter U Gem
stars (z = 37 pc according to Kraft in Advances in Astron. and
Astrophys. 2, 43, 1963), its distance would be about 50 pc. The
presumably small proper motion would obviously yield a low 
tangential velocity at this distance. Thus, it appears likely that
this star has a comparatively low space velocity, consistent
with the disk-population kinematics shown by the dwarf novae.


                                      N. SANDULEAK

                                      Warner and Swasey Observatory
                                      E. Cleveland, OH U.S.A.