COMMISSION 27 OF THE I.A.U.
               INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                            Number 1439

                                                      Konkoly Observatory
                                                      Budapest
                                                      1978 May 15


         THE FAR ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM OF THE
           BINARY SYSTEM EPSILON AURIGAE

Far ultraviolet observations (1250-2000 A) of the eclipsing
binary Epsilon Aur have been made on April 19, 1978 in the low
resolution mode (RP=7 A) with the International Ultraviolet 
Explorer by M. Hack and P.L. Selvelli. The flux observed at lambda
1320 is roughly estimated about 100 times higher and at lambda
1500 about 10 times higher than that expected from the F0 Ia star.
These results indicate the presence of a hot companion of visual 
magnitude about 10 or 11. The presence of a hot companion was 
predicted by Hack (1961) for explaining the characteristics of the
observed "shell" spectrum during the eclipse of 1955-1957 (Hack,
1959) and attributing the eclipse of the primary to electron
scattering from the shell or ring surrounding the hot companion.


                               MARGHERITA HACK

                               Trieste Astronomical
                               Observatory


                               PIER LUIGI SELVELLI

                               ESA ground station,
                               Villafranca del Castillo,
                               Spain; on leave of absence
                               from the Trieste Observatory



References:

Hack, M. 1959, Astroph. J. 129, 291 [BIBCODE 1959ApJ...129..291H ]
Hack, M. 1961, Mem. Soc. Astron. It. 32, 351 [BIBCODE 1961MmSAI..32..351H ]


Editor's note: This paper came to the editor's hand on May 15, 1978.
According to an agreement among NASA SRC and ESA users, however,
any data collected with IUE satellite should not have been 
published before the publication of the results of the science 
commissioning phase.