Detailed optical studies of the galactic supersoft X-ray source QR And (RXJ0019.8+2156)

We present high-speed long term photometric observations from 1992 to 1996 (UBVRI), as well as recently obtained (1997) spectrophotometric and high resolution spectroscopic studies of the bright galactic supersoft X-ray source RXJ0019.8+2156. Our photometry reveals a highly variable object. The shortest observed quasi-periodic variations are humps with a period of approx 1.8h. The timings of the main minimum are not exactly regular and occur on average around phase phi=0.0. With our new data set we calculated an update of the orbital period. Our simultaneous spectroscopic and spectrophotometric studies from 1997 give an even more detailed insight: blue and red shifted satellite lines at HeII 4686 and at the strong Balmer lines, which are interpreted as high velocity outflows, can clearly be detected. We also present for the first time an analysis of this supersoft source by means of Doppler tomography. The lines of HeII (4542,4686), H_a and H_b show no emission from an accretion disk. These emission lines originate in regions within the binary system with very low velocities. The spatial origin of the emitting material is not quite clear and will be investigated in a follow-up paper.