The hypergiant RW Cep is one of the largest stars in our galaxy. The evolution and mass loss of such stars has profound effects on their surrounding regions and the galaxy as a whole. Between 2020 and 2024, RW Cep experienced a historic mass-loss event known as the Great Dimming. This study provides a spectroscopic analysis of RW Cep during the Great Dimming. We examine its atmospheric dynamics and place it in the context of the star's variability behaviour since the early 2000s. We conducted high-cadence spectroscopic observations of RW Cep during the dimming event using the Tartu Observatory 1.5-meter telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope. We analysed the atmospheric dynamics by measuring the radial velocities and line depths of Fe I and other spectral lines. The radial velocities of the Fe I lines reveal a vertical velocity gradient of 10-20 km/s in the atmosphere, correlating with the strength of the spectral lines. Stronger lines, formed in higher atmospheric layers, have higher radial velocities. We measured the systemic velocity at -50.3 km/s. During the dimming, radial velocities were affected by additional emission from the ejected gas, which was blue-shifted relative to the absorption lines. Post-dimming, we observed large-scale atmospheric motions with amplitude ~25 km/s. Strong resonance lines of Ba II, K I, Na I and Ca I showed stable central emission components at -56 km/s, likely of circumstellar origin.

ABSTRACT The viscous decretion disc (VDD) scenario has been used to model the observables of the Be stars. Its capability to predict individual observables has been confirmed for several Be stars. Here, we simultaneously analyse the spectroscopic and $BVI$-band photometric data for the Be star MT91-213 with the Monte Carlo radiative-transfer code hdust to determine the stellar parameters, geometry, and physical conditions for its circumstellar disc. MT91-213 is the primary component of a binary system whose companion is the pulsar PSR J2032+4127. We find that the VDD model can simultaneously reproduce the multiple observables qualitatively, but not quantitatively. We determine the mass of the primary star to be 13.1 ${\rm M}_{\odot }$ which is smaller than reported in the literature. We present a dynamical scenario for the evolving disc density from a diffuse to a dense phase. Also, we determine that the inclination of the disc is about 40$^{\circ }$ which means it is 20$^{\circ }$ tilted from the orbit of the secondary star. Our results indicate that the mass loss rate for MT91-213 is $\sim 10^{-7}$ to $10^{-6} {\rm M}_{\odot }\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ which is in agreement with the suggested values in the literature, required to explain the observed X-ray synchrotron luminosity, $L_\mathrm{x}$, for PSR J2032+4127.

Context. The yellow hypergiant star V509 Cas is currently undergoing an extreme phase of evolution. Having experienced eruptive mass-loss outbursts in the 20th century, the star's effective temperature reached record high values in the early 2000s. However, since then, the star's behaviour has displayed an unprecedented level of stability. In spite of that, the star could be traversing through the 'yellow void' instability region. Aims. To describe the current evolutionary state of V509 Cas, we analysed its variability using photometric and spectroscopic data collected over recent years. By comparing our findings with historical records, we aim to determine whether the star's surface shows signs of stabilisation. Additionally, we investigate the variability of emission components in the wings of certain spectral lines to highlight the contribution of the circumstellar gaseous disc to this phenomenon. Methods. Our spectroscopic monitoring observations were carried out at Tartu Observatory over the course of seven years, supplemented by echelle spectra obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope, as well as publicly available photometric data from Gaia, AAVSO, and AAVSO's Bright Star Monitor programme. We estimated the variability of effective temperature and radial velocity from the spectral time series and correlated it with the brightness variability of V509 Cas. Results. The results indicate that the star's average brightness level has remained stable throughout the observed period, with an amplitude of variability similar to 0.1 mag. While the amplitude of short-term temperature fluctuations has decreased compared to the early 2000s, the variability of the radial velocity remains similar to historical values from the early 20th century. Moreover, we show how the variable radial velocity affects the emission components in some absorption lines (e.g. Sc II) and how that follows the hypothesis of a disc surrounding the star.

Context. V838 Monocerotis is a peculiar binary that underwent an immense stellar explosion in 2002, leaving behind an expanding cool supergiant and a hot B3V companion. Five years after the outburst, the B3V companion disappeared from view, and so far did not recover. Aims. We investigate the changes in the light curve and spectral features Methods. A monitoring campaign has been performed during the past 13 years with the Nordic Optical Telescope to obtain optical photometric and spectroscopic data. The data sets are used to analyse the temporal evolution of the spectral features and the spectral energy distribution, and to characterize the object. Results. Our photometric data show a steady brightening in all bands during the past 13 years, which is particularly prominent in the blue. This rise is also reflected in the spectra, showing a gradual relative increase in the continuum flux at shorter wavelengths. In addition, a slow brightening of the Ha emission line starting in 2015 was detected. These changes might imply that the B3V companion is slowly reappearing. During the same time interval, our analysis reveals a considerable change in the observed colours of the object along with a steady decrease in the strength and width of molecular absorption bands in our low-resolution spectra. These changes suggest a rising temperature of the cool supergiant along with a weakening of its wind, most likely combined with a slow recovery of the secondary due to the evaporation of the dust and accretion of the material from the shell in which the hot companion is embedded. From our medium-resolution spectra, we find that the heliocentric radial velocity of the atomic absorption line of TiI 6556.06 A has been stable for more than a decade. We propose that TiI lines are tracing the velocity of the red supergiant in V838 Mon, and not representing the infalling matter as previously stated.

In this proceeding, we present a short review of the fascinating nebulosities of symbiotic binary R Aquarii. The R Aquarii system, comprising the central binary and surrounding nebular material, has been the subject of near-continuous study since its discovery, with a few hundred papers listed in ADS. As such, it is impossible to provide here the comprehensive review that R Aquarii deserves, instead we chose to focus on the nebulosities -- covering both our own research and other relevant results from the literature.

AbstractThe post-main sequence evolutionary path of massive stars comprises various transition phases, in which the stars shed large amounts of material into their environments. Our studies focus on two of them: B[e] supergiants and yellow hypergiants, for which we investigate the structure and dynamics within their environments. We find that each B[e] supergiant is surrounded by a unique set of rings or arc-like structures. These structures are either stable over time or they display high variability, including expansion and dilution. In contrast, yellow hypergiants are embedded in multiple shells of gas and dust. These objects are famous for their outburst activity. Moreover, the dynamics in their extended atmospheres imply an enhanced pulsation activity prior to outburst. The physical mechanism(s) leading to episodic mass ejections in these two types of stars is still uncertain. We propose that strange-mode instabilities, excited in the inflated envelopes of these objects, play a significant role.

Spectroscopic monitoring of the yellow hypergiant $ρ$ Cas revealed a new outburst in 2013, which is obvious from the development of TiO bands in the spectra. Also many atmospheric lines characteristic for a later spectral type appear. This spectroscopic outburst is in agreement with the photometric light curve, which displays a drop by about 0.6 mag during the same period.

R Aquarii is a symbiotic binary surrounded by a large and complex nebula with a prominent curved jet. It is one of the closest known symbiotic systems, and therefore offers a unique opportunity to study the central regions of these systems and the formation and evolution of astrophysical jets. We studied the evolution of the central jet and outer nebula of R Aqr taking advantage of a long term monitoring campaign of optical imaging, as well as of high-resolution integral field spectroscopy. Narrow-band images acquired over a period of more than 21 years are compared in order to study the expansion and evolution of all components of the R Aqr nebula. The magnification method is used to derive the kinematic ages of the features that appear to expand radially. Integral field spectroscopy of the OIII 5007A emission is used to study the velocity structure of the central regions of the jet. New extended features, further out than the previously known hourglass nebula, are detected. The kinematic distance to R Aqr is calculated to be 178 pc using the expansion of the large hourglass nebula. This nebula of R Aqr is found to be roughly 650 years old, while the inner regions have ages ranging from 125 to 290 years. The outer nebula is found to be well described by a ballistic expansion, while for most components of the jet strong deviations from such behaviour are found. We find that the Northern jet is mostly red-shifted while its Southern part is blue-shifted, apparently at odds with findings from previous studies but almost certainly a consequence of the complex nature of the jet and variations in ionisation and illumination between observations.

Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS).Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity (PL), period-Wesenheit (PW) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL, PL-metallicity (PLZ), and optical luminosity-metallicity (M-V-[Fe/H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS.Methods. Classical Cepheids were carefully selected in order to discard known or suspected binary systems. The final sample comprises 102 fundamental mode pulsators with periods ranging from 1.68 to 51.66 days (of which 33 with sigma(pi)/pi < 0.5). The Type II Cepheids include a total of 26 W Virginis and BL Herculis stars spanning the period range from 1.16 to 30.00 days (of which only 7 with sigma(pi)/pi < 0.5). The RR Lyrae stars include 200 sources with pulsation period ranging from 0.27 to 0.80 days (of which 112 with sigma(pi)/pi < 0.5). The new relations were computed using multi-band (V,I,J,K-s) photometry and spectroscopic metal abundances available in the literature, and by applying three alternative approaches: (i) linear least-squares fitting of the absolute magnitudes inferred from direct transformation of the TGAS parallaxes; (ii) adopting astrometry-based luminosities; and (iii) using a Bayesian fitting approach. The last two methods work in parallax space where parallaxes are used directly, thus maintaining symmetrical errors and allowing negative parallaxes to be used. The TGAS-based PL,PW,PLZ, and M-V- [Fe/H] relations are discussed by comparing the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud provided by different types of pulsating stars and alternative fitting methods.Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K-band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the Hipparcos measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive.Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous Hipparcos estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia-calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia-only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018.

Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the H ipparcos and Tycho -2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho - Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity ( PL ), period-Wesenheit ( PW ) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL , PL -metallicity ( PLZ ), and optical luminosity-metallicity ( M V -[Fe / H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS. Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K -band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the H ipparcos measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive. Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous H ipparcos estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia -calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia -only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018.

Yellow Hypergiants (YHGs) and B[e] supergiants (B[e]SGs), though in different phases in their evolution, display many features in common. This is partly due to the fact that both types of objects undergo strong, often asymmetric mass loss, and the ejected material accumulates in shells, rings, or disk-like structures, giving rise to emission from warm molecules and dust. We performed an optical spectroscopic survey of northern Galactic emission-line stars aimed at identifying tracers for the structure and kinematics of circumstellar environments. We identified two sets of lines, [O I] and [Ca II], which originate from the discs of B[e]SGs. The same set of lines is observed in V1302 Aql and V509 Cas, which are both hot YHGs. While V1302 Aql is known to have a disc-like structure, the kinematical broadening of the lines in V509 Cas suggest a Keplerian disk or ring around this star alike their hotter B[e]SG counterparts.

B[e] supergiants and yellow hypergiants share a number of common properties regarding their circumstellar environments. Using the forbidden [OI] and[Ca II] lines as disk tracers, we suggest the presence of a Keplerian disk or ring around the yellow hypergiant V509 Cas and confirm the pole-on inner disk around V1302 Aql. These findings indicate a change in mass-loss behavior from spherical in cooler yellow hypergiants to axisymmetric in the hotter ones during the passage through the Yellow Void. The accumulation of material in the equatorial plane reminds of the disks of B[e] supergiants, supporting the suggestion that yellow hypergiants might appear as B[e] supergiants after they reach the blue edge of the yellow instability domain.

Gaia is a very ambitious mission of the European Space Agency. At the heart of Gaia lie the measurements of the positions, distances, space motions, brightnesses and astrophysical parameters of stars, which represent fundamental pillars of modern astronomical knowledge. We provide a brief description of the Gaia mission with an emphasis on binary stars. In particular, we summarize results of simulations, which estimate the number of binary stars to be processed to several tens of millions. We also report on the catalogue release scenarios. In the current proposal, the first results for binary stars will be available in 2017 (for a launch in 2013).

Due to their large expansion speed, the apparent growth of nearby nova remnants such as GK Per can be easily resolved from ground-based optical imagery on a timescale of months. If the expansion in the plane of the sky is coupled with the Doppler shift velocities, an almost complete dynamical picture is drawn. We will discuss our latest results of such a study on GK Per.

The Gaia satellite will survey the entire celestial sphere down to 20th magnitude, obtaining astrometry, photometry, and low resolution spectrophotometry on one billion astronomical sources, plus radial velocities for over one hundred million stars. Its main objective is to take a census of the stellar content of our Galaxy, with the goal of revealing its formation and evolution. Gaia's unique feature is the measurement of parallaxes and proper motions with hitherto unparalleled accuracy for many objects. As a survey, the physical properties of most of these objects are unknown. Here we describe the data analysis system put together by the Gaia consortium to classify these objects and to infer their astrophysical properties using the satellite's data. This system covers single stars, (unresolved) binary stars, quasars, and galaxies, all covering a wide parameter space. Multiple methods are used for many types of stars, producing multiple results for the end user according to different models and assumptions. Prior to its application to real Gaia data the accuracy of these methods cannot be assessed definitively. But as an example of the current performance, we can attain internal accuracies (RMS residuals) on F,G,K,M dwarfs and giants at G=15 (V=15-17) for a wide range of metallicites and interstellar extinctions of around 100K in effective temperature (Teff), 0.1mag in extinction (A0), 0.2dex in metallicity ([Fe/H]), and 0.25dex in surface gravity (logg). The accuracy is a strong function of the parameters themselves, varying by a factor of more than two up or down over this parameter range. After its launch in November 2013, Gaia will nominally observe for five years, during which the system we describe will continue to evolve in light of experience with the real data.

We present a kinematical study of the optical ejecta of GK Per. It is based on proper-motion measurements of 282 knots from ∼20 images spanning 25 years. Doppler shifts are also computed for 217 knots. The combination of proper motions and radial velocities allows a unique three-dimensional view of the ejecta to be obtained. The main results are as follows: (1) the outflow is a thick shell in which knots expand with a significant range of velocities, mostly between 600 and 1000 km s−1, (2) kinematical ages indicate that knots have suffered only a modest deceleration since their ejection a century ago, (3) no evidence for anisotropy in the expansion rate is found, (4) velocity vectors are generally aligned along the radial direction, but a symmetric pattern of non-radial velocities is also observed at specific directions, and (5) the total Hα+[N ii] flux has been linearly decreasing at a rate of 2.6% per year in the past decade. The eastern nebular side is fading at a slower rate than the western side. Some of the knots were displayed a rapid change of brightness during the 2004–2011 period. Over a longer timescale, a progressive circularization and homogenization of the nebula are taking place; (6) a kinematic distance of 400 ± 30 pc is determined. These results raise some problems with the previous interpretations of the evolution of GK Per. In particular, the idea of a strong interaction of the outflow with the surrounding medium in the southwest quadrant is not supported by our data.