2011/09/30 by Noel D. Richardson, N. D. Richardson, D. R. Gies +16
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1109.6905
5 pages, 2 figures, To be published in the proceedings of the meeting 'Four decades of research on massive stars' in honor of Tony Moffat, 11-15 July 2011, Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec
arxiv created 2011/09/30 · openalex publication_date 2011/09/30 · arxiv updated 2011/10/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on the preliminary results of a three-year monitoring campaign of Galactic and Magellanic LBVs with both moderate and high resolution spectroscopy. We have collected more than 500 moderate-resolution spectra of 20 stars in the red portion of the optical spectrum, which includes the wind-sensitive transitions of Hα and He I 5876 and 6678 Angstroms. We summarize our detailed study of 15 years of high resolution Hα spectroscopy of the prototypical luminous blue variable, P Cygni. We report on the discovery of discrete absorption components in P Cygni's Hα profile, and we discuss their relationship to structure in the wind. These results are compared to our recent high resolution interferometric imaging of the H-band emitting region surrounding the star. We discuss recent observations of η Car, highlighting its unusual recovery from the previous periastron passage. Our results on HDE 326823 indicate that the star has a short period binary orbit, with Roche Lobe overflow onto an unseen massive companion.