Be Star Spectra call for observations

I recently read a very interesting review article on Be stars dated from 2013 that mention our work: "highly motivated amateur astronomers have begun to contribute to the field with spectroscopic observations of increasing quality, comparable to that ofsmall professional instruments. Spectra are made available to the community via the Be Star Spectra Database".

If you are interested in learning more about those very insteresting stars, check out this detailed review which explains very well the definition of Be stars (and what are NOT Be stars) as well as recent (past decade) learning on those objects:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3962

There is also a more recent article (2017) on 28 Cygni that use several spectra from dozen of amateur taken back in 2015-2016 and while the star has not strongly active, spectra are showing some ineresting feature specially in 2016 with some changes seen. The article decribes very well what can be seen on Halpha spectra (EW, V/R, RV) and their meaning:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.07360

During the month of june, more than a hundred spectra were taken by 18 different observers. If you are also interested in helping acquiring Be stars spectra, specially with high resolution spectrograph (R>5000), I would recommend you to start practicing the BeSS file format and spectra acquisition/reduction with some bright targets. gamma Cassiopae is usually a good choice to start with, well visible in the sky. You can also start with beta Lyrae, whose Halpha spectrum is always changing.

Once you have a spectrum in BeSS format, you can contact one of the database administrator to check everything is okay. You can also submit it on BeSS databas (submission of a spectrum is actually your registration). There, your spectrum will be checked in terms of quality and compared to other's in the database:

http://basebe.obspm.fr/basebe/

Then, go to slightly fainter targets. Why not 28 Cygni for exemple, whose behavior is always of interest (see article above!). You can also pick lambda Cygni, omicron Andromedae or phi Andromedae as those three stars are under a special scrutiny at the moment, looking for drastic changes in their Halpha profile, sign of an outburst!

Again, simply submit your spectra on BeSS database whre it will be checked. You can also do some prep analysis by downloading a recent spectrum from BeSS - a fully public access - and comparing to yours. Check specifically for telluric lines which should be at the same position (wavelength calibration quality control!) and shape of the line similar (good check on instrumental response for exemple).

Look for spectra taken with similar equipment than yours and compare acquisition time and overall noise on the continuum - are they similar, better or maybe some hints of improvement?

Then, there are plenty of other Be stars to look at. ARASBeAm provides a list, every night, on Be stars to observe by comparing the last spectrum date and the expected observation period. Targets are displayed in red when they should abolutely be observed, yellow when it is recommended to observe them and green when they are not a priority (but you can still observe them). Check out ARASBeAm website:

http://arasbeam.free.fr/spip.php?page=beam_belist2

Be Star Spectra is not only interesting from a scientific point of view (cf the two proposed articles - and more!) but they also help you to progress in general stellar specrocopy. So do not hesitate to join in.

There is just one warning... once you get hooked, you will love it! :-)