The Be Star HD 6226

M. W. Castelaz (PARI) and B. McCollum (SIRTF Science Center, Caltech)

The 6th-magnitude B2IV-V star HD 6226 was discovered a few years ago on the basis of Hipparcos photometry to be variable, and possibly periodic, by Bozic and Harmanec (1998).  Bozic and Harmanac suggested that HD 6226 could be a previously unrecognized Be star based on some episodes of brightening which were accompanied by reddenings in B-V and blueings in U-B.  McCollum, Castelaz, and Caton (2000) first reported detection of H-alpha emission from HD 6226, and confirmed that it is a previously unknown Be star.  

We have obtained high-resolution (R=19,000) spectra from 3600A to 9000A of HD 6226 over a five-month period in 2002 and 2003 using the Palomar 1.5-m telescope with the Echelle spectrograph.    We report the discovery of variability of H-alpha emission in HD 6226, and discuss the first spectroscopic study and monitoring of this object.  We compare the time behavior of H-alpha emission with possible periods suggested by Bozic and Harmanec.