A set of 2915 V measurements covering 146 hours of the d Scuti star HD 18878 was obtained at Merate Observatory on 25 nights from November, 1990 to January, 1991. The light curve is dominated by the first term (f1 = 6.86 c/d) which displays an amplitude of 23.4 mmag, but the frequency analysis unambiguously revealed three components with amplitudes between 4.6 mmag and 8.4 mmag (f2 = 1.22 c/d, f3 = 11.18 c/d, f4 = 10.01 c/d) and, with a lower reliability, three components with amplitudes between 2.7 and 4.6 mmag ( f5 = 12.29 c/d, f6 = 13.20 c/d, f7 = 10.78 c/d). Other undetected terms with amplitudes less than 1.6 mmag are probably present. The most probably identification for the f1 term is the fundamental radial mode and also the f6 and f7 terms can be radial modes (the third and second overtones, respectively); the others are nonradial modes. During the first nights of observations, HD 19279 was used as a comparison star and found to be variable. Further extensive observations showed that this star is a very small amplitude (2.2 mmag), monoperiodic ( f1 = 14.45 c/d) Delta Scuti variable.
sperl@astro.ast.univie.ac.at