A Study of the Hα Variability of Be Stars

This paper presents the results of 4 years of high-resolution spectral observations of 69 emission-line stars, 54 of them being newly discovered sources. We classified the stars on the basis of their position in the two-color IR diagram and some additional criteria: shape and width of the H alpha profile, presence of He lines, proper motion and parallax, membership to open cluster and associations. Sixty of our targets turned out to be Be stars. We also found four late giants, four pre-MS stars, and one late dwarf. The H alpha emission profiles of our Be stars range from single peaked to typical shell profiles that can also be highly asymmetric or single-peaked profiles with a narrow absorption core. The emission profiles appear almost constant with time or highly variable in intensity and in their V/R ratio. The detected long-term variability of the H alpha emission is important for investigating the on/off switch phenomenon of Be stars. Our study led to an increase of the number of the emission-line stars of 16 open clusters.