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High-Speed Optical Spectroscopy of a Cataclysmic Variable Wind: BZ Cam (0623+71)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

F. A. Ringwald
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802–6305, U. S. A.
T. Naylor
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U. K.

Extract

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The nova-like variable BZ Cam (also called 0623+71) is an unusual cataclysmic variable star in that it resides in a nebula, discovered by Ellis, Grayson, & Bond (1984) and designated EGB 4. It is more unusual in that its optical spectrum reveals a wind from its accretion disk. This was discovered serendipitously during a radial velocity study to find orbital period by Thorstensen, Thomas, & Patterson (1993; see also Patterson et al. 1996), who found intermittent P Cygni profiles in the He I λ 5876 Å and Hα emission lines.

The 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope and its ISIS spectrograph were used to obtain time-resolved spectra of these lines with 0.4 Å/pixel dispersion and 30-second time resolution. These new spectra have about 5 times the spectral resolution and 24 times the time resolution of those of Thorstensen et al. (1993). These observations were obtained on the nights of 1995 February 6 – 8 UT. The blue arm of ISIS was centered on the He I λ 5876 Å; the red arm covered Hα. Typical signal-to-noise ratio was 18 per resolution element.

Type
Part 15. Poster Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1997

References

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