A Spectropolarimetric Atlas of 61 Bright Northern Be Stars

We are developing an atlas of spectropolarimetric observations of 61 bright northern Be stars obtained from 1989-94 using the halfwave polarimeter (HPOL) at the 0.9m telescope of the University of Wisconsin Pine Bluff Observatory (PBO). The data cover the wavelength range from about 3400-7600Å, with a spectral resolution of about 25Å. This atlas will contain all data (297 observations total) obtained as part of a survey program with HPOL during the time when the detector in use was a dual Reticon array; the survey observations with HPOL continue, using a new CCD detector which extends the spectral coverage out to 1.05μm and improves the spectral resolution to about 12Å. The CCD observations will be presented later in a second volume of the atlas.Only a brief summary of the findings of the survey from the first 5 years of the project is presented here. A full analysis of the data will be included in a paper to be published elsewhere. The general wavelength dependence of polarization for classical Be stars can be considered on the basis of these observations, and results on polarimetric variability are available. In particular, we find that 56% (20 of 36) of the Be stars observed 3 or more times from 1989-94 show significantly variable polarization at the level of 0.1% changes (inclusion of preliminary results from the continuing CCD survey indicates that the percentage is even higher). The timescales for these changes range from as short as night-to-night to as long as several months. Several of the stars showed evidence for polarimetric “outbursts” during the time period covered by the observations.