We report on combined spectroscopic and photometric observations of EW Lac during its outburst of 1983. At this time the star’s Hα and Hβ lines showed strong doubled-peaked emission profiles which were variable with time. UBV photometry exhibited a long-term and frequent erratic short-term variations. The amplitude of U, B and V variations reached about 0.3 magnitude on October 15, 1983. Both Hβ emission and the structure of the shell absorption lines of the star also displayed anomalous behavior in 1983. It is evident that this star was in a strong active phase at that time.

ζ Tau is a well-known V/R-variable shell star. It is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 133 days (Harmanec 1984, and Jarad 1987). Delplace (1970) found that the long-term radial velocity variations of the Balmer shell absorption lines are cyclic in 1960–67. Subsequently, similar behaviour has been observed and studied by several authors (Delplace and Chambon 1976, Hubert-Delplace et al 1983, Harmanec 1984, and Guo and Cao 1987). Mon et al (1992) showed that the cyclic variation had terminated and the star seems to have entered a new quiet phase around 1982.