COMMISSION 27 OF THE I.A.U.
               INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                            Number 1474

                                                      Konkoly Observatory
                                                      Budapest
                                                      1978 September 18


             VZ CEPHEI IS AN ECLIPSING BINARY

The variable star VZ Cephei is classified in the GCVS 3 as
"Is?". M. Beyer (1) observed it visually in the period from 1929
to 1937 and noticed irregular minima like BO Cephei. Also G. Romano
(2) found the light variation to be irregular. The object was
therefore taken into our photoelectric observation program for
young stars and frequently observed in UBV during the period from
1975 April 28 to 1978 August 2 with the Sonneberg 60 cm 
telescope II. The absence of emission features in the spectrum 
(obtained with the Tautenburg 2 m telescope by P. Notni) gave a
first indication that the object was probably not a young star
in the pre-main-sequence stage. Photoelectric observation clearly
showed that it is an eclipsing binary. The comparison star was
BD +70d1200, which was compared with the star BD +70d1195 as a check.
Star BD +70d1200 was linked to star No. 8 in NGC 7160 (3) with the
UBV values V = 10.50m, B-V = +0.44m, U-B = +0.02m. The following
elements for the light variation and photometric data could be
determined.

VZ Cephei  M_o = 244 3720.920
             P = 1d.18336
         V_max = 9.74m, (B-V)_max = +0.48m, (U-B)_max = +0.06m

BD +70d1200  V = 9.82m, B-V = +0.53m, U-B = +0.03m


                         S. ROSSIGER

                    Zentralinstitut fur Astrophysik
                       Sternwarte Sonneberg
                         DDR-64 Sonneberg



References:

Beyer, M., 1950, Astron. Abh. (Erg. Astron. Nachr.) 12, Nr. 2
Romano, G., 1962, Oss. astr. Padova Pubbl. N. 125
Hoag, A.A., et al., 1961; Publ. U.S. nav. Obs., 2nd ser., Vol. 17, part 7 [BIBCODE 1961PUSNO..17....1H ]

                         [FIGURE 1]

                Mean light curve of VZ Cephei 
                dots: single measurements,
                larger dots: mean of three single measurements