Visual observations made
by S. Otero (Liga Iberoamericana de Astronomía,
Buenos Aires) and communicated on June 21 imply that the
Be star Cen
(= HR 5193 = HD 120321) brightened between June 7 and June
21 by about 0.2 mag from its previous level of 3.5 mag.
An echelle spectrogram taken on June 21.95 by X. Liu
(University College, London) with the ESO 1.5 m
telescope (+FEROS) at the La Silla Observatory shows broad
emission wings in
H and
numerous emission lines from singly ionized
metals; the peak separations of the Si II
line at 634.7 nm and the Fe II lines at 516.9 and
531.7 nm are 285, 280, and 290 km/s, respectively.
Comparison with earlier observations of the same star
(
Rivinius et al.,
1998, A&A, 333, 125) suggests that the outburst proper
took place about 10±10 days earlier. The ephemeris of
Rivinius et al.
(1998, ASP Conf. Ser., 135, 343), which is based on the
beating of several nonradial pulsation modes, predicts an
outburst on June 18±7 days.
Cen
Cen
(= HR 5193 = HD 120321) brightened between June 7 and June
21 by about 0.2 mag from its previous level of 3.5 mag.
An echelle spectrogram taken on June 21.95 by X. Liu
(University College, London) with the ESO 1.5 m
telescope (+FEROS) at the La Silla Observatory shows broad
emission wings in
H
and
numerous emission lines from singly ionized
metals; the peak separations of the Si II
line at 634.7 nm and the Fe II lines at 516.9 and
531.7 nm are 285, 280, and 290 km/s, respectively.
Comparison with earlier observations of the same star
(