Some emission stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Eleven stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud called P Cygni type by Miss Cannon have recently been studied at the Boyden Station. The new observations consist of short dispersion slit spectra and photoelectric measures in three colors. The spectra show that all these stars have bright Balmer lines. They fall into two groups encompassing all but two. The first group is characterized by Fe ii emission, and includes three stars very similar in spectrum to ~ Carinae. The second group has strong emission lines of He I with violet absorption components. One of the eleven stars is a nebula, while one, S Doradus, has a peculiar spectrum. This star, long known as a highly luminous variable star, is probably akin to the bright variables in M 31 and M 33 described by Hubble and Sandage.' The mean apparent magnitude of the eleven stars is I 1.6, with a dispersion of 0.6 magnitude. Thackeray's distance modulus of the Large Magellanic Cloud, 18.7 magnitudes,' indicates mean absolute magnitude -7.1. All these stars are very blue; a plot of yellow-blue versus blue- ultraviolet colors shows they all have an excess of ultraviolet radiation. This may provide a means of discovering such objects in other nearby galaxies. There is no good correlation between color, magnitude, or spectrum. 5.Ap. J. is8, 353, 5953. 2.Nature i75, 693, 5953. Boyden Station, Bloemfontein OF. S., South Africa.