COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                    Number 1535

                                Konkoly Observatory
                                Budapest
                                1979 January 18




  THE ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM OF beta LYRAE OBSERVED WITH THE IUE



    We have obtained several sets of exposures of the interacting 
binary system beta Lyrae with the IUE satellite observatory.
The observations were made in 1978 June and September at the
high resolution mode (Lambda/DeltaLambda ~ 10^4) in the far-ultraviolet
(1200-2000 A) and the mid-ultraviolet (1900-3200 A) regions.
    The spectral region between about 1500 and 2100 A was not
covered in the previous Copernicus high resolution (0.2 and 0.4 A)
observations of this binary reported by Hack et al. (1975, 1976
and 1977). In addition, signal-to-noise ratio in the mid-ultraviolet 
region of the current IUE data is superior to that attained 
by the Copernicus V2 spectrometer. The spectral range between
about 1500 and 2100 A was also observed at much lower resolution
with TD1 S2/68 spectrometer (Hack 1974) and Skylab S019 sky survey
camera (Kondo et al.1976). The resolution of the S2/68 spectrometer 
was about 35 A in this range; the 5019 camera had resolutions 
of 2 A, 12 A and 42 A at 1400 A, 2000 A and 2800 A, 
respectively.
    Hundreds of lines have been observed with the IUE. These
observational results are being prepared for publication in a
full journal article. We wish to report here the following 
preliminary findings from the IUE data.
    The strong spectral features reported by Hack (1974) near
2000 A and Kondo et al. (1976) in the 1500-2100 A range appear
to be in reasonable accord with the current results, except
that a number of new lines we re observed at the higher resolution 
of the IUE. One notable revision of the Skylab results is
the identification of the feature near 1910 A, for which C III ]
intercombination line was tentatively suggested. From the IUE
spectra, it is now clearly identified as one of the three Fe III
multiplet (No. 34) lines. All of the multiplet have been observed 
as P Cygni features at 1895, 1914 and 1926 A.
     We shall now attempt to draw a broad-brush picture of the
IUE results: In the 1100-1600 A region, numerous emission lines
dominate over P Cygni features. In the 1600-2200 A range, strong
P Cygni lines are dominant; weak and moderate absorption lines
of Fe II, Fe III and other ionized metals observed in this regime
do not appear to be entirely photospheric. Between 2200 and 2400 A,
very weak absorption lines are seen; identification of these lines
is underway. In the 2400-3000 A region, absorption lines observed
can largely be attributed to Fe II and Fe III photospheric lines
except the resonance lines of Fe II and Mg II. The Fe II line at
2599 A shows strong shortward-shifted absorption indicative of
mass flow. The Mg II resonance doublet at 2795 and 2802 A are
seen as P Cygni features as previously reported by Kondo et al.
(1972) and Hack et al. (1977).
    We are pleased to acknowledge the competent assistance of
the U.S. IUE project team led by Dr. A. Boggess in the acquisition
and reduction of the data.




             YOJI KONDO
             Code 685
             Goddard Space Flight Center
             Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A.
             
             GEORGE E. McCLUSKEY and FRANK F. FRANCISCO
             Department of Mathematics
             Division of Astronomy
             Lehigh University
             Bethlehem, PA 18015, U.S.A.

             SIDNEY B. PARSONS
             Department of Astronomy
             University of Texas
             Austin, TX 78712, U.S.A.




References:

Hack, M. 1974, Astr.Ap., 36, 321 [BIBCODE 1974A&A....36..321H ]
Hack, M., Hutchings, J.B., Kondo, Y., McCluskey, G.E., Plavec, M.,
       and Polidan, R.S. 1975, Ap.J., 198, 453 [BIBCODE 1975ApJ...198..453H ]
Hack, M. Hutchings, J.B., Kondo, Y., McCluskey, G.E., and Tullock, M.K.,
       1976, Ap.J., 206, 777 [BIBCODE 1976ApJ...206..777H ]
Hack, M., Hutchings, J.B., Kondo, Y., and McCluskey, G.E. 1977,
      Ap.J. Suppl. 34, 565 [BIBCODE 1977ApJS...34..565H ]
Kondo, Y., Giuli, R.T., Modisette, J.L., and Rydgren, R.E. 1972,
      Ap.J., 176, 153 [BIBCODE 1972ApJ...176..153K ]
Kondo, Y., Parsons, S.B., Henize, K.G., Wray, J.D., Benedict, G.F., and
      McCluskey, G.E. 1976, Ap.J., 208, 468 [BIBCODE 1976ApJ...208..468K ]