Spectroscopy of Be stars in open clusters

To explore whether similar disk appearances and/or disappearances are common among the Be stars in other open clusters, we present here multiple epochs of H{alpha} spectroscopy for 296 stars in eight open clusters. We identify 12 new transient Be stars and confirm 17 additional Be stars with relatively stable disks.

By comparing the H{alpha} equivalent widths to the photometric y-H{alpha} colors, we present a method to estimate the strength of the H{alpha} emission when spectroscopy is not available. For a subset of 128 stars in four open clusters, we also use blue optical spectroscopy and available Stromgren photometry to measure their projected rotational velocities, effective temperatures, and polar surface gravities. We combine our Be star detections from these four clusters to investigate physical differences between the transient Be stars, stable Be stars, and normal B-type stars with no line emission.