STUDY OF SPECTROSCOPIC BINARIES WITH TODCOR .2. THE HIGHLY ECCENTRIC BINARY HD-2909

TODCOR is a new two-dimensional correlation technique for analyzing ob served spectra of double-lined spectroscopic binaries in order to extr act the radial velocities of both components. In this paper we apply T ODCOR for the first time to a real system-the highly eccentric binary HD 2909. TODCOR has derived successfully the velocities of the two com ponents, even at phases when the velocity difference between the prima ry and the secondary was very small. We present an orbital solution wh ich shows that HD 2909 is the second most eccentric spectroscopic bina ry known, with an eccentricity of 0.949 +/- 0.002. We discuss the tida l history of HD 2909 and show that neither the semimajor axis and the eccentricity of the orbit nor the stellar rotation have been changed b y tidal interaction throughout the system lifetime.