Related papers: R144 revealed as a double-lined spectroscopic bina…

The most massive stars known to date are R 136 a1, a2, a3, and c within the central cluster R 136a of the Tarantula nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), with reported masses in excess of 150-200$M_\odot$. However, the mass estimation…

Oph-S1 is the most luminous and massive stellar member of the nearby Ophiuchus star-forming region. Previous Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations have shown it to be an intermediate-mass binary system ($\sim 5\,{\rm M}_\odot$) with…

PDS 144 is a pair of Herbig Ae stars that are separated by 5.35" on the sky. It has previously been shown to have an A2Ve Herbig Ae star viewed at 83\circ inclination as its northern member and an A5Ve Herbig Ae star as its southern member.…

We present a comprehensive photometric study of the pulsating, eclipsing binary OO Dra. Simultaneous B- and V-band photometry of the star was carried out on 14 nights. Revised orbital period and a new ephemeris were derived from the data.…

Spectroscopic observations are reported for the 2.75 day, double-lined, detached eclipsing binary EPIC 219552514 located at the turnoff of the old nearby open cluster Ruprecht 147. A joint analysis of our radial velocity measurements and…

RX J0648.0-4418 is a post common-envelope X-ray binary composed of a hot subdwarf and one of the most massive white dwarfs with a dynamical mass measurement (1.28+/-0.05 M_sun). This white dwarf, with a spin period of 13.2 s, rotates more…

We present multi-epoch high-resolution optical spectroscopy ($R \simeq 80{,}000$) of the emission-line object NaSt1 to test its proposed binary nature, along with long-term multiband photometry, mid-infrared spectroscopy, and spatially…

Recently the first finding of a spin period of an accreting neutron star in M31 is reported. The observed spin period is 1.2 s and it shows 1.27 d modulations due to orbital motion. From the orbital information, the mass donor could not be…

We present the first multi-epoch radial velocity study of embedded young massive stars using near-infrared spectra obtained with ISAAC mounted at the ESO Very Large Telescope, with the aim to detect massive binaries. Our 16 targets are…

SuWt2 is a planetary nebula (PN) consisting of a bright ionized thin ring seen nearly edge-on. It has a bright (V=12) central star, too cool to ionize the PN, which we discovered to be an eclipsing binary. A spectrum from IUE did not reveal…

We present a radial velocity study of the rapidly rotating B-star Regulus that indicates the star is a single-lined spectroscopic binary. The orbital period (40.11 d) and probable semimajor axis (0.35 AU) are large enough that the system is…

WR 31a (Hen 3-519) is likely a post-luminous blue variable (LBV) star that is evolving to become a classical Wolf-Rayet star. Multicolor (UBVR) photopolarimetric observations of WR 31a were obtained over nine nights in early 2007. The…

We report the first measurement of the orbital period of a long-period colliding-wind binary (CWB) system WR 146, derived by tracing the rotational morphology of its wind-colliding region (WCR) and the relative orientation of the two binary…

MWC 314 is one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. Its fundamental parameters are similar to those of LBVs, although no large photometric variations have been recorded. We analyzed the radial velocity (RV) variations displayed by…

We report the results of an analysis of data obtained with the INTEGRAL, Swift and RXTE observatories during the 2010 April and September outbursts of the X-ray pulsar RX J0440.9+4431. The temporal and spectral properties of the pulsar in a…

We report the detection of a new 3.06 ms binary pulsar in the globular cluster NGC6544 using a Fourier-domain ``acceleration'' search. With an implied companion mass of ~0.01 solar masses and an orbital period of only P_b~1.7 hours, it…

Previous work indicates that about 10% of planetary-nebula nuclei (PNNi) are photometrically variable short-period binaries with periods of hours to a few days. These systems have most likely descended from common-envelope (CE) interactions…

We present multi-epoch spectroscopic observations of the massive binary system WR21a, which include the January 2011 periastron passage. Our spectra reveal multiple SB2 lines and facilitate an accurate determination of the orbit and the…

HD 15137 is an intriguing runaway O-type binary system that offers a rare opportunity to explore the mechanism by which it was ejected from the open cluster of its birth. Here we present recent blue optical spectra of HD 15137 and derive a…

We present spectroscopy of the optical counterpart to 1RXS J162848.1-41524, also known as the microquasar candidate MCQC J162847-4152. All the data indicate that this X-ray source is not a microquasar, and that it is a single-lined…