Recent Unusual Activity in the Be Star FY Canis Majoris

Abstract

Unusual activity observed in the circumstelar envelope of FY CMa during April-May, 1987 is reported. Nightly CCD observations from April 16-20 revealed an invariant H-alpha emission feature and a simple absorption profile for He I 6678 with very weak double emission components. Similar observations on May 2, however, showed that the V lobe of the H-alpha feature had increased in strength by 30 percent and that the He I line had developed into a structured inverse P Cygni profile.