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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
The spectrum of CH Cygni usually has the appearance of a normal M6 III star, but at intervals of several years, it has phases of activity during which it shows the characteristics of a symbiotic star, that is, a blue continuum extending shortward of the Balmer discontinuity, and strong emission lines of He I, Fe II, [Fe II] , [S II], [0 1] , [0 III]; the Balmer lines and the H and K lines of Ca II present emission wings. Outbursts were observed: 1) in September 1963; the star returned to its normal phase by August 1965 (Deutsch, 1964); 2) in June 1967 (Deutsch, 1967); the spectrum was observed by Faraggiana and Hack (1971) until December 1970, when the activity phase was over; 3) another outburst was observed in August 1977 (Morris, 1977; Fehrenbach, 1977), and at the time of our last spectroscopic observations (June 1981) it was still going on. During this last period of activity several observations were made with IUE in both the low and high resolution modes, from 1175 A to 3100 A.