The long-period companions of multiple stars tend to have moderate eccentricities We examined the statistics of an angle gamma between the radius vectorof a visual companion of a multiple star and the vector of its apparentrelative motion in the system. Its distribution f(gamma ) is related tothe orbital eccentricity distribution in the investigated sample. Wefound that for the wide physical subsystems of the 174 objects from theMultiple Star Catalogue f(gamma ) is bell-shaped. The Monte-Carlosimulations have shown that our f(gamma ) corresponds to the populationof the moderate-eccentricity orbits and is not compatible with thelinear distribution f(e)=2e which follows from stellar dynamics andseems to hold for wide binaries. This points to the absence of highlyelongated orbits among the outer subsystems of multiple stars. Theconstraint of dynamical stability of triple systems is not sufficient toexplain the ``rounded-off'' outer orbits; instead, we speculate that itcan result from the angular momentum exchange in multiple systems duringtheir early evolution.
The South Galactic Pole - Results from uvby-beta photometry of 572 O-F stars Photometric observations on the uvby-beta system are presented for 572O-F stars within about 20 deg of the South Galactic Pole. Theinterstellar extinction near the pole is found to be zero out to 400 pcfrom the sun, in agreement with the H I maps of Burstein and Heiles(1982). Several evolved and Population II objects are identified.
