COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     Number 1675

                                     Konkoly Observatory
                                     Budapest
                                     1979 September 24



          SEMIREGULAR 58 DAYS VARIATION IN VV Cep



    The long period eclipsing binary system VV Cep was observed on
nearly 100 nights from August 1976 to September 1978 in the Red and
Infrared colours. A preliminary analysis of the red plates, 103aE
with RG1 filter, with a two minutes exposure at the focus of the 11
cm astrograph of the S. Vittore Observatory in Bologna, revealed a
manifest semiregular variation with a period of approximately 58 days,
as shown in Figure 1. Our period is about half of the period of 118


                           [FIGURE 1]

 Figure 1:  moving averages on three plates. The mean error of each 
 point is about 0.04 mag.


days reported by McCook and Guinan (1978) based on Halpha photoelectric
observations on 850 days, but with big intervals of straight 200 days.
   According to Hutchings and Wright (1971) these variations should
come from the Halpha emission region with a radius of 150 R_Sun, surrounding
the Be star, the eclipse of which should be partial. Red and Infrared
observations are continued and we hope to observe before long the
star also in Halpha. A complete analysis of the observations, including
UBV photoelectric photometry of the eclipse, will be published 
elsewhere.
   We would like to thank Vacchi, Sassi and Sette for having done
the observations till now and L. Baldeschi, A. Dalle donne, R. Di Luca,
A. Ferri, C. Frisoni, G. Mengoli, A. Prosperi for helping in the reductions.


                      L. BALDINELLI
                      S. GHEDINI
                      S. MARMI
                      Osservatorio Astronomico
                      "Guido Horn D'Arturo"
                      C.P. 1630, 40100 Bologna A/D
                      Italy



References:
Hutchings, J.B., Wright, K.O. 1971, M.N.R.A.S., 155, 203. [BIBCODE 1971MNRAS.155..203H ]
McCook, G.P., Guinan, E.F. 1978, I.B.V.S., 1385