Vol 60, No 8 (2016)

The excitation of methanol in the absence of external radiation is analyzed, and LTE methods for probing interstellar gas considered. It is shown that rotation diagrams correctly estimate the gas kinetic temperature only if they are constructed using lines whose upper levels are located in the same K-ladders, such as the J₀−J₋₁E lines at 157 GHz, the J₁−J₀E lines at 165 GHz, and the J₂−J₁E lines at 25 GHz. The gas density must be no less than 10⁷ cm⁻³. Rotation diagrams constructed from lines with different K values for their upper levels (e.g., 2_K−1_K at 96 GHz, 3_K−2_K at 145 GHz, 5_K−4_K at 241 GHz) significantly underestimate the temperature, but enable estimation of the density. In addition, diagrams based on the 2_K−1_K lines can be used to estimate the methanol column density within a factor of about two to five. It is suggested that rotation diagrams should be used in the following manner. First, two rotation diagrams should be constructed, one from the lines at 96, 145, or 241 GHz, and another from the lines at 157, 165, or 25 GHz. The former diagram is used to estimate the gas density. If the density is about 10⁷ cm⁻³ or higher, the latter diagram reproduces the temperature fairly well. If the density is around 10⁶ cm⁻³, the temperature obtained from the latter diagram should be multiplied by a factor of 1.5–2. If the density is about 10⁵ cm⁻³ or lower, then the latter diagram yields a temperature that is lower than the kinetic temperature by a factor of three or more, and should be used only as a lower limit for the kinetic temperature. The errors in the methanol column density determined from the integrated intensity of a single line can be more than an order of magnitude, even when the gas temperature is well known. However, if the J₀−(J − 1)₀E lines, as well as the J₁−(J − 1)₁A⁺ or A⁻ lines are used, the relative error in the column density is no more than a factor of a few.

The results of a study of the H₂O and OH maser emission from the cool IR source IRAS 16293−2422 are presented. The observations analyzed were obtained in H₂O lines with the 22-m telescope of the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory during 1999–2015 and in OH lines with the Nanc¸ ay radio telescope (France). A large number of very strong flares of the H₂O maser were detected, reaching fluxes of tens of thousands of Jansky. Individual features can form organized structures resembling chains ∼2 AU in length with a radial-velocity gradient along them. The observed drift of the H₂O emission (2003–2004) in space and velocity (from 4.3 to 5.3 km/s) is not due solely to proper motion of the features. The other origin of the drift is a drift of the emission maximum during a flare as the shock consecutively excites spatially separated features in the structure in the form of a chain. The OH-line observations at 18 cm show that the emission remains unpolarized and thermal, with a line width of 0.7 km/s, which corresponds to a cloud temperature of ∼30 K.

This paper continues a study of the photometric activity of UX Ori stars in the optical and near-infrared (JHKLM bands) initiated in 2000. For comparison, the list of program stars contains two Herbig Ae stars that are photometrically quiet in the optical: MWC480 andHD179218. Fadings ofUXOri stars in the optical (V band) due to sporadic increases of the circumstellar extinction are also observed in the infrared (IR), but with decreasing amplitude. Two stars, RR Tau and UX Ori, displayed photometric events when V -band fadings were accompanied by an increase in IR fluxes. Among the two Herbig Ae stars that are photometrically quiet in the optical, MWC 480 proved to be fairly active in the IR. Unlike the UX Ori stars, the variation amplitude of MWC 480 increases from the J band to the M band. In the course of the observations, no deep fadings in the IR bands were detected. This indicates that eclipses of the program stars have a local nature, and are due to extinction variations in the innermost regions of the circumstellar disks. The results presented testify to an important role of the alignment of the circumstellar disks relative to the direction towards the observer in determining the observed IR variability of young stars.

Spectra of sunspots in the regions of the Li I 6708 Å line and certain Fe I and Ca I lines are presented. The observations wee carried out in August 2014 using a CCD array mounted at the BST-2 telescope of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Sunspot models based on the observed Fe I and Ca I line profiles have been computed, and used together with the observed Li I 6708 Å profiles to determine the lithium abundances. The mean lithium abundance for the sunspots observed on August 26, 2014 is logA(Li) = 1.2 (on a scale for which logA(H) = 12.0). Sunspot spectra obtained on October 8, 2011 were also analyzed, yielding logA(Li) = 1.02.