Spectroscopic observations of the Be stars eta Cen, γ Cas and phi Per

The main part of this paper is concerned with observations obtained using the Princeton ultraviolet telescope-spectrometer on the Copernicus satellite through the Princeton guest investigator programme. These observations provided high resolution ultraviolet spectra of the bright southern shell star eta Cen, which are now being analysed in detail. A short description of the new eta Cen spectra and a progress report on the data analysis are presented. In the second part of the paper the authors describe visible-region spectra of the northern Be stars γ Cas and phi Per obtained with a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph on the 36-inch Yapp telescope at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. (Auth.)