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This paper discusses data reduction for an echelle spectrograph we have developed for an automatic telescope at Tennessee State University and are using to monitor radial velocities and line profiles of cool giant and supergiant stars. Although our approach to data reduction is rather conventional, we discuss flatfielding and extraction of velocities in ways that should be of general interest, establish a transformation to the IAU radial velocity system (ϩ0.35 ‫ע‬ 0.09 km s Ϫ1 ), and determine the external precision for measured velocities (0.10-0.11 km s Ϫ1 ). Also, we present results of the first 2-3 years of monitoring radial velocities in about 120 cool giants and compare those results with the level of variability found with photometry. These new data confirm the widely held understanding that K and M giants are all radial velocity variables at the level of 0.1 km s Ϫ1 .

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We have acquired simultaneous high-precision space photometry and radial velocities of the bright hybrid β Cep/SPB pulsator γ Peg. Frequency analyses reveal the presence of six g modes of high radial order together with eight loworder β Cep oscillations in both data sets. Mode identification shows that all pulsations have spherical degrees ℓ = 0 − 2. An 8.5 M ⊙ model reproduces the observed pulsation frequencies; all theoretically predicted modes are detected.We suggest, contrary to previous authors, that γ Peg is a single star; the claimed orbital variations are due to g-mode pulsation. γ Peg is the first hybrid pulsator for which a sufficiently large number of high-order g modes and low order p and mixed modes have been detected and identified to be usable for in-depth seismic modeling.

We present the analysis of 4.5 years of nearly continuous observations of the classical Cepheid Polaris, which comprise the most precise data available for this star. We have made spectroscopic measurements from ground and photometric measurements from the WIRE star tracker and the SMEI instrument on the Coriolis satellite. Measurements of the amplitude of the dominant oscillation (P ¼ 4 days), which go back more than a century, show a decrease from A V ¼ 120 to 30 mmag around the turn of the millennium. It has been speculated that the reason for the decrease in amplitude is the evolution of Polaris toward the edge of the instability strip. However, our new data reveal an increase in the amplitude by $30% from 2003 to 2006. It now appears that the amplitude change is cyclic rather than monotonic and most likely the result of a pulsation phenomenon. In addition, previous radial velocity campaigns have claimed the detection of long-period variation in Polaris (P > 40 days). Our radial velocity data are more precise than previous data sets, and we find no evidence for additional variation for periods in the range 3Y50 days with an upper limit of 100 m s À1 . However, in the WIRE data we find evidence of variation on timescales of 2Y6 days, which we interpret as being due to granulation.

We have obtained spectroscopy and photometry of the chromospherically active, single-lined spectroscopic binaries HD 89546 and HD 113816. HD 89546 has a circular orbit with a period of 21.3596 days. Its primary has a spectral type of G9 III and is somewhat metal-poor with [Fe/H] $ À0.5. HD 113816 has an orbit with a period of 23.6546 and a low eccentricity of 0.022. Its mass function is extremely small, 0.0007 M , consistent with a very low inclination. The primary is a slightly metal-poor K2 III. A decade or more of photometric monitoring with an automatic telescope demonstrates that both systems display brightness variations due to rotational modulation of the visibility of photospheric star spots, as well as light-curve changes resulting from the redistribution of star spots by differential rotation and long-term changes in the filling factor of the spots. We determined rotation periods for each season when the observations were numerous enough. Our mean rotation periods of 21.3 and 24.1 days for HD 89546 and HD 113816, respectively, confirm that the giants in each system are synchronously rotating. The orbital elements and properties of the giant components of these two systems, including levels of surface magnetic activity, are quite similar. However, the two rotational inclinations are rather different, 57 for HD 89546 and 13 for HD 113816. Thus the latter giant is seen nearly pole on. We analyzed the light curves for similarities and differences that result from viewing these two systems from quite different inclinations.

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