1999 June 8/9 - a dream session from dusk [11pm local time] to dawn [3am] under clear calm skies when the LX200 behaved impeccably! Started on Arcturus and V Boo [for repeat spectra] during dusk with high background count and as the skies darkened the variables in Cygnus to include three S type spectra and two of N type - the greatly varying spectra proof that stars are not "just simple points of light". The 'A' line @759nm marks the boundary of visible light and IR to its right.
The reddest star of the session is undoubtedly Chi [X] Cyg, a Mira of spectral type S6,2e - S10,4e where most of the radiation is [currently] in IR. Other Mira's include U, R and WX with semi-regular AA and V[Boo] and emission line stars P and V444 - the latter includes a Wolf-Rayet binary component with ionized nitrogen - the presumed strongest emission line in its spectrum. The apparent coincident of H-alpha and H-beta emission lines in V444 [compare with P Cyg] is probably due to iso-electronic ionization of He II at 656.0nm and 486.0nm respectively [if due to the WR component]. Other emission lines in both spectra mostly attributed to He. My paper on WR + PNe spectra awaiting BAAJ publication.
Exotic objects SS Cyg [dwarf nova], Cyg-X1 [x-ray source] and VX [ Cepheid] all appear rather bland in these low-res spectra. SS Cyg is currently under a VS-Net 'alert' #3074 with pro-am + x-ray + HST UV investigation. VX Cyg targetted because in 'Variable Stars' [C+S Gaposchkin - Harvard OM#5; 1938] quoted as [now defunked] spectral class Rp. Nova 1876 [Q Cyg] currently ~m14.6 also captured and identified in a crowded star-field by its 'non-continuum' spectrum.
