AS 314: A dusty A–type hypergiant ^*

¹ Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, 196140, Russia
² Ritter Observatory, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, U.S.A.
³ Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Karachai-Cirkassian Republic, Nizhnij Arkhyz, 357147, Russia
⁴ Isaak Newton Institute of Chile, SAO Branch

Send offprint request to: A.S. Miroshnichenko, e-mail: anatoly@physics.utoledo.edu

Received: 1 September 1999
Accepted: 13 March 2000

Abstract

We present the results of our observations of the poorly-studied emission-line star AS 314 which include high-resolution spectroscopy, obtained at the 6 -meter telescope of the Russian Academy of Sciences, multicolor optical and near-infrared photometry. The strong Hα line, Hβ and Hγ of moderate strength and a number of weak Fe ii lines were detected in emission. The Balmer lines and most of the Fe ii lines show narrow P Cyg-type profiles which implies a very low terminal velocity of the stellar wind. Very weak signs of emission are found in Hδ. Photospheric lines detected for the first time allowed us to determine the object's spectral type, A0. The luminosity,  mag was estimated using several methods and implies that AS 314 is a hypergiant, which is located at about 10 kpc from the Sun and has an initial mass of . Modeling of the Balmer line profiles resulted in the following parameters of the stellar wind:  yr^-1, . The star is located within the LBV strip in the HRD. Its noticeable far-IR excess is due to the circumstellar dust emission and is likely evidence of an LBV-type outburst in the past.