Spectroscopic survey of ASAS eclipsing variables: search for chromospherically active eclipsing binary stars - I

We have started a spectroscopic survey to identify new chromospherically active components and low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stars in recently discovered All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) eclipsing binaries. In this paper, we briefly describe our scientific motivation, the observing tools and the results obtained from the first phase of this survey. Using the available observing facilities in India, the spectroscopic observations of a sample of 180 candidate eclipsing binary stars selected from ASAS-I&II releases were carried out during 2004-2006. The strength of H alpha emission was used to characterize the level of chromospheric activity. Our spectroscopic survey reveals that out of 180 stars about 36 binary systems show excess H alpha emission. One of the objects in our sample, ASAS 081700-4243.8, displays very strong H alpha emission. Follow-up high-resolution spectroscopic observations reveal that this object is indeed very interesting and most likely a classical Be-type system with K0III companion.