| Popis: |
The double cluster h and χ Persei has since long been known to be rich in Be stars (Trumpler, 1926). It belongs to an age group in which various types of variable stars occur (Mermilliod, 1981). Other clusters of this age group are NGC 3293, the cluster that is richest in β Cephei variables (Balona and Engelbrecht, 1983), IC 2581, NGC 4755, and NGC 6871. The comparison of the characteristics of variable stars in all these clusters and in clusters of other age groups could reveal to which extent the cluster stellar content is determined by age and by other parameters, such as galactic location, and so metallicity. Since h and χ Persei are very rich clusters that have not yet been studied intensively as far as stellar variability is concerned (Percy, 1972), we have undertaken a study of the photometric variability of the brightest stars in the double cluster. Our first interest was to detect β Cephei variables, but it rapidly turned out that the double cluster contains a considerable amount of highly variable Be stars. |
