The early spectra of eta Carinae

We have used modern digital processing techniques to examine Harvard objective-prism spectra made from 1892 to 1941. Relatively high excitation HeI{lambda}4471 and [FeIII]4658 emission, conspicuous today, were weak and perhaps absent throughout those years.

Feast et al. (2001MNRAS.322..741F) noted this qualitative fact for other pre-1920 spectra, but we quantify it and extend it to a time only three years before Gaviola (1953ApJ...118..234G)'s first observations of the high-excitation features. Evidently the supply of helium-ionizing photons ({lambda}<504{AA}) grew rapidly between 1941 and 1944. The apparent scarcity of such far-UV radiation before 1944 is difficult to explain in models that employ a hot massive secondary star, because no feasible dense wind or obscuration by dust would have hidden the photoionization caused by the proposed companion during most of its orbital period.