COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                    Number 1771

                               Konkoly Observatory
                               Budapest
                               1980 April 9


              ONE LESS CARBON STAR


The irregular variable BX Aurigae is noted as belonging to the carbon class in
the General Catalogue of Variable Stars, and, as such, is included in
Stephenson's General Catalogue of Cool Stars (1973). Reference to a blue
objective-prism plate in the observatory files, however, indicates that this
object, while rather red and badly overlapped by another spectrum, is not a
carbon star. To the writer's knowledge the first mention of BX Aurigae as a
carbon star is in the 7th Supplement to the 1st edition of the GCVS (1955), and
no later spectral type seems to have been determined. It seems not unlikely
that a clerical error confusing this object with the well-known nearby carbon
star RV Aurigae was responsible for the erroneous type.


WILLIAM P. BIDELMAN
Warner and Swasey Observatory
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

Reference:

Stephenson, C.B.: 1973, Publ. Warner and Swasey Obs. 1, No. 4 [BIBCODE 1973gcss.book.....S ]