α2 CVn: A comparison between spot and oblate spheroid models

A comparison is made between a hot-spot model and a recently proposed oblate spheroid model (Böhm-Vitense & Van Dyk 1987) to explain the spectroscopic and photometric variations of α² CVn. It is found that the spot model gives a better fit to the spectroscopic and photometric variations. The spot model requires five high temperature circular patches over the surface of the star. The positions of these patches agree well with those derived spectroscopically by Pyper (1969).