COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     Number 1795

                                   Konkoly Observatory
                                   Budapest
                                   1980 May 29


   SPECTRA OF FOUR BLUE IRREGULAR VARIABLES IN ANDROMEDA


During a variable star survey in a field around nu Andromedae I detected four
irregular variable blue stars (Meinunger, Mitt. veranderl. Sterne 7, 1-21.
1975). At my request P. Notni, G.A. Richter, and S. Kopylov kindly took six
image tube spectrograms (140 A/mm) at the 2-m-telescope of Tautenburg
Observatory (HQ And and IO And on 1979 Oct. 12; HV And and IW And on 1979 Oct.
13) and the 6-m-telescope of the SAO Selenchukskaja (HV And and IO And on 1979
Nov. 25).

On a plate taken with the 40-cm-astrograph of Sonneberg Observatory by B.
Fuhrmann on 1979 Oct. 23 (JD 2444170.290) the photographic brightness of
the stars was: HQ And=15.0; HV And=15.8; IO And=16.2, IW And=16.0.

HQ And, HV And, and IO And are photometrically and spectroscopically very
similar objects. Probably they are cataclysmic binary systems. Their
light-curves resemble those of objects like AM Her and AN UMa but do not
belong to the U-Gem or Z-Cam-stars.

IW And seems to be a unique object.

HQ And (S 10774): Weak emission lines of H_alpha and H_beta are superposed on a
blue continuum.

HV And (S 10777): On both plates the spectrum is continuous superposed by
weak H_alpha and H_beta emission lines.

IO And (S 10785): The two spectra are continuous without emission lines. On
the spectrum from Selenchukskaja H_alpha seems to be filled in or weak in
absorption.

IW And (S 10792): A photometric tracing of this remarkable spectrum is shown
in Fig.1. The absorption spectrum belongs to an O or early B dwarf or
subdwarf: H_beta, H_gamma, H_delta are broad and strong in absorption.
Some HeI (and He II?) lines are visible but weaker than the CIII - NIII -
band around 4650. Possibly the spectrum is composed: the hump at 5330
towards longer wavelengths is probably not caused by photographic sensitivity.
At the place of H_alpha the spectrum is continuous without signs of emission or
absorption. A couple of doubtful emission lines at the limit of detectibility
seem to be present in this region of the spectrum, but could not be
identified.

                      [FIGURE 1]

   Fig. 1. Photometric tracing of the spectra of IW And. (Nos. 1-7:
   night-sky and city lines).


L. MEINUNGER
Sonneberg Observatory of
Central Institute for Astrophysics
of Academy of Sciences of the GDR