ON THE PERIOD VARIATION OF THE DELTA-SCUTI STAR VZ-CANCRI

New photoelectric photometry and new times of maximum light are report ed for the delta Scuti-type star VZ Cancri. Times of maximum light ava ilable for die last five decades have been studied. The times of maxim um from the last decade, however, indicate that the period has not bee n steadily increasing as believed until now. To allow for this discrep ancy several interpretations of the O-C diagram are discussed. However , the scatter in the (O-C) residuals is large and it is difficult to f avor a case between a sloping linear fit and a sinusoidal fit. The for mer indicates that the main period needs to be revised and a predicted value of 0.17836365 days is obtained. The later suggests the presence of an unseen companion whose nature and implications are briefly disc ussed. In either case it can be concluded that VZ Cnc is not undergoin g any secular period variation. Other possibilities like abrupt period changes and long-term effects of nonlinear combinations of short freq uencies are discussed but found unrealistic.