COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     Number 1873

                                   Konkoly Observatory
                                   Budapest
                                   1980 December 2

                                   HU ISSN 0374-0676


             CW UMa - A NEW FLARE STAR?


   By chance the writer recently noted that the coordinates of
the object No. 1710 in the Catalogue of Stars Suspected of Variability, 
which is designated CW Ursae Majoris in the 62nd Name-list 
of Variable Stars (I.B.V.S. No. 1248), agree very closely
with those of the faint proper-motion star G 119-62 discovered at
the Lowell Observatory (Lowell Obs. Bull. 6, 1, 1963). Luyten includes 
the latter object in his New Two-Tenths Catalogue, assigning 
to it a motion of 0"203/yr and a photographic magnitude of
12.8. Positions for both objects are accurately known.
   CW UMa was discovered to be a rapid, presumably RR Lyrae, variable 
by Neujmin (Var. Stars 4, 41, 1932 and Poulk. Circ. 4, 22,
1932) and confirmed as an RR Lyrae star of range 12.8 - 14.4 pg
by Parenago (Var. Stars 4, 134, 1933), who however did not determine 
a period. To the writer's knowledge no further work has been
done on the star.
   Reference to a visual-region Warner and Swasey Observatory
objective-prism plate reveals that the proper-motion star has, as
expected, a spectral type of about M3; in view of its motion it
is undoubtedly a dwarf. It appears very likely that this is in
fact the variable CW UMa, though no chart exists for the latter
object. It is probably significant that the photographic magnitude
assigned at Lowell (14.6) is substantially fainter than that given
by Luyten. In view of the object's photometric behavior and spectral 
type it seems probable that CW UMa will prove to be a flare
star and it is thus recommended to observers.



                          WILLIAM P. BIDELMAN
                      Warner and Swasey Observatory
                      Case Western Reserve University
                      Cleveland, Ohio 44106 USA