UBV Photometry at the Outside Eclipse Phase of AZ Cassiopeiae

Abstract

VV Cep-type long period spectroscopic-eclipsing binary AZ Cas has been observed for five years, 1985 Oct ~ 1990 Feb, in UBV at the Ilsan Station of Yonsei University Observatory. A total of 431 observations (U=129, B=142 and V=160) are made for 86 nights. Instrumental differential UBV and B-V light curves made with these observations cover phases nearly a half of one period. There is no appreciable light variation in V but in other two passbands a gradual decrease of the brightness is clearly noticed. The loss of light in B resulted in a reddening in △(B-V) by +0.06 at phases between 0.4~0.5 as compared with that of at phase ~0.1. This intrinsic reddening arouses a question why at the orbital phase of the transit of a hot star in front of a cool M supergiant the heating of the facing hemisphere of M supergiant by the strong radiation from the B star is absent. With regard to this unusual situation we propose a hypothesis that a large amount of gas stream of low temperature ejected from the surface of M supergiant component towards the B star dominates the brightness of B star and reflection effect.