SPECTROSCOPY OF Z-CAMELOPARDALIS IN OUTBURST WITH THE HOPKINS ULTRAVIOLET TELESCOPE

The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope on board the Astro-1 shuttle mission was used to observe the 830-1850 angstrom spectrum of the cataclysmic variable Z Camelopardalis near the peak of a normal outburst. The observation reveals a rich absorption-line and continuum spectrum which peaks near 1050 angstrom at a flux of 5 x 10(-12) ergs cm-2 s-1 angstrom-1. In the sub-Ly-alpha region, some of the stronger absorption lines include S VI lambda-lambda, 933, 945, C III lambda-977, N III lambda-991, O VI lambda-lambda-1032, 1038, He II lambda-1085, P v lambda-lambda-1118, 1128, and C III lambda-1176. No emission is observed below the Lyman limit. The continuum spectrum resembles that of an optically thick accretion disk where the integrated spectrum is constructed by summing stellar model atmospheres. Similar models using summed blackbody spectra fail to approximate the observed continuum.