Determination of the Abundance of Mercury from the Hg ii Line at 6149.47 Å in Late B-type Stars. I. HD 89822

Abstract The weak line of Hg ii located at 6149.47 Å is used to measure the mercury abundance in the mercury-rich star HD 89822. The abundance derived from this line agrees well with the abundance derived from the line at 3983.93 Å but is smaller than earlier findings in the literature. This could be explained if mercury is inhomogeneously distributed over the surface of HD 87822. The abundances of several other elements have been derived. The following excesses/deficiencies are found: helium (−1.00), carbon (−0.42), oxygen (−0.09), neon (−0.70), magnesium (−0.39), aluminum (−1.30), silicon (−0.07), phosphorus (+0.70), titanium (+1.32), chromium (+0.74), manganese (+1.60), iron (0.16), gallium (+2.00), strontium (+0.64), yttrium (+2.90), xenon (+4.18) and barium (+0.88).