Simultaneous Photometry and Spectroscopy of the Peculiar B[e] Star with Infrared Excess HD 45677

Abstract

U, B, V photometric observations performed in February 1977 at the European Southern Observatory (62 cm Bochum telescope) show that for the star B2IV[e] HD 45677 some of the magnitudes and related color indices may vary by as much as 0.03 mag. over one night, and about 0.1 mag. from night to night. The conclusion derived from our photometric run confirm those published by Feinstein et al (1976), namely that “A variation in V is almost systematically accompanied by a change in B-V but of opposite sign”. We further find that a variation in V is well correlated with a similar change of the U-B index: such a correlation existed in the data of Feinstein and coworkers, although it had not been reported.

Our spectroscopic material, that was obtained simultaneously with the photometry mentioned above, consists, of 38 spectra that cover the blue region at a dispersion of 20 A mm^-1. Such an important sample of spectrograms has not yet been analysed in great detail for intensities, radial velocities, etc. . We will only report here on striking variations that were detected in the profiles of the following lines: H_γ, H_δ, H_ε, Ca II(H) and Mg II λ 4481.