The highly variable mass accretion in S CrA

Observations in the 1970s and 1980s showed that the classical T Tauri star S CrA often exhibited inverse P Cygni line profiles, indicative of mass accretion, in the upper Balmer lines. We have revisited this system, taking advantage of the monitoring capabilities of the SMARTS facilities, to compile a long-term spectrophotometric record of the brightness and line profile variations in this star. S CrA is a 1.3 arcsec visual pair, with up to 2 magnitude variations in optical brightness. Although generally dismissed as insignificant, our imaging shows that the SE component is often brighter and bluer than the NW component. We have obtained low dispersion spectra with a cadence of up to 2 spectra per night over the past year. These spectra clearly reveal discrete accretion events. Spectra of the Ha line show a time-variable wind at a constant velocity. Our spectroscopy does not resolve the system. We present the time-series spectra and images, and will report on our attempts to correlate the mass infall, the mass outflow, and the line and continuum brighness variations. The rapidity of the variations in this system present an opportunity to examine the interplay of accretion and atmospheric heating in an accreting T Tauri star.