COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
          INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      Number 2548

                                         Konkoly Observatory
                                         Budapest
                                         9 July 1984

                                         HU ISSN 0374-0676


         DETECTION OF AN ULTRAVIOLET CONTINUUM IN T Lyn

   T Lyn is an N-type carbon star classified as a Mira variable with a
period of about 420 days and a range 9.0<V<13.3. On a 75 minute exposure,
low-dispersion Kodak IIIa-J objective-prism plate, taken with our Burrell
Schmidt telescope on 1 Feb. 1984, this star, which was near maximum light,
shows a heavily exposed continuum sharply tapering off towards a wavelength
of about 4000 A, below which a faint, flat featureless ultraviolet continuum
persists down to the blue spectral cut-off at about 3300 A. Inspection of
the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey print shows that this ultraviolet tail
can not be caused by an overlapping spectrum. It could arise in a hot, blue
companion (U approx. 16 mag) or in T Lyn itself as proposed in the similar 
case of NQ Gem (Ap.J. 163, 309, 1971). Additional observations are obviously
needed to define the source of this ultraviolet continuum. Observations
with the IUE satellite would be ideal but would, unfortunately, require very
long exposure times.


               N. SANDULEAK
               Warner & Swasey Observatory
               Case Western Reserve University
               Cleveland, OH 44106 U.S.A.