COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     Number 2399

                                      Konkoly Observatory
                                      Budapest
                                      15 September 1983

                                      HU ISSN 0374-0676



       Halpha VARIABILITY IN TWO SOUTHERN RS CVn CANDIDATES



  We present Halpha observations of two southern RS CVn candidates, HD 174429
(PZ Tel) and HD 196818. Recent photometry and brief histories of these objects
can be found in Innis et al, (1983a, 1983b).
  All observations were obtained with the Cassegrain echelle spectrograph on
the 1.0 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory on four nights in August 1983.
The dispersion at Halpha was approximately 10 A/mm.
  HD 174429 showed variation in the depth of Halpha over timescales of a few
hours. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) show raw, uncorrected spectra taken almost 
exactly 24 hours apart. The variation is clearly visible. Our earlier photometry
of this object gives a period around 22.6 hours, hence it appears that the
Halpha variations are not correlated with the photometric wave, as the spectra in
Figure 1 are taken at nearly the same photometric phase.

                          [FIGURE 1a]
                          [FIGURE 1b]

  Observations were also taken on HD 196818. Collier et al. (1982) obtained
an Halpha profile of this object, and reported a broad shallow absorption feature.
Our observations show Halpha to be clearly in emission (Figure 2), obviously, the
Halpha profile is variable in this star as well.

                           [FIGURE 2]

  We also include an expanded plot of the sodium D lines for HD 196818
(Figure 3) and HD 174429 (Figure 4) which appear noticeably asymmetric.

                           [FIGURE 3]
                           [FIGURE 4]

We suggest that these asymmetric are attributable to spots on the surface of
The star, as has been proposed by Fekel (11983) for the star V711 Tau. (For
Comparison, Figure 5 shows the D lines of HR 6744, included in our 
observations as a template star). 

                           [FIGURE 5]


  We are preparing a more extensive work for publication elsewhere.
  We thank the Director and staff of Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring 
Observatories for the allocation of time on the 1.0 m telescope in August 1983. We
also thank Ian Evans of M.S.S.S.O. for assistance with the telescope and
spectrograph during the course of these observations. J.L. Innis is supported
by a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award.





           J.L. INNIS, D.W. COATES AND K. THOMPSON
           Department of Physics, Monash University
           Clayton. 3163, Victoria, Australia






References:
Collier, A.C., Haynes, R.F., Slee, O.B., Wright, A.E. and Hillier, D.J.:
   1982, Mon. Not. Roy. astr. Soc. 200, 869 [BIBCODE 1982MNRAS.200..869C ]
Fekel, F.C.: 1983, Astrophys. J., 268, 274 [BIBCODE 1983ApJ...268..274F ]
Innis, J.L. Coates, D.W., Moon, T.T., and Thompson, K.: 1983, 
   Inform. Bull. Var. Stars No. 2378
Innis, J.L. Coates, D.W., Dieters, S.W.B., Moon, T.T., and Thompson, K.:
   1983, Inform. Bull. Var. Stars No. 2386