1 Introduction

Stars with masses in the range of $50 {-} 100~{M}_\odot$ and luminosities of $10^5 {-} 10^6~{L}_\odot$ populate the upper left end of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (HRD). During their short lives of $\la$10⁷ yrs they evolve from hot O stars on the main sequence towards cooler temperatures, first at almost constant luminosities. They soon enter a phase of very strong mass loss of up to $10^{-4}~{M}_\odot~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. This influences their further evolution dramatically: They do not evolve further towards lower temperatures, i.e., towards the red supergiant state, but rather turn in the HRD and become hotter again, albeit later less luminous (e.g., Schaller et al. 1992; Langer et al. 1994).

The region in the HRD where this turn occurs is known to be the domain of the Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs). There exists an empirical limit that separates a region in the HRD into which the most massive stars do not evolve, the so-called Humphreys-Davidson Limit (Humphreys & Davidson 1979, 1994). Here the stars not only exhibit large continuous mass loss, but at least some of them undergo giant eruptions. Both, the continuous wind and the eruptions lead to a peeling off of the outer parts of the stellar envelope and to the formation of circumstellar LBV nebulae (LBVN; e.g., Nota et al. 1995). Humphreys & Davidson (1994) classify 32 stars as LBVs and an additional 9 as candidates. 9 of the LBVs and candidate stars are located in the Milky Way and 10 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

S 119 ( $= {\rm Sk}~-69^\circ 175 = {\rm HDE}~269687$) is one of the LBVs in the LMC. It was classified as Ofpe/WN9 star by Bohannan & Walborn (1989). Since the early eighties, there was already the suspicion of a close relation between Ofpe/WN9 stars and LBVs when R127, located again in the LMC and previously classified as Ofpe/WN9 underwent an LBV outburst (Stahl et al. 1983). The evidence for a connection between the two stellar classes has become even stronger since then, as longtime spectroscopic monitoring of LBVs and Ofpe/WN9 stars became available (see, e.g., Stahl & Wolf 1986; Wolf et al. 1988; Bohannan & Walborn 1989; Nota et al. 1996; Pasquali et al. 1996).

After discovering a nebula around S 119, Nota et al. (1994) classified the star as an LBV candidate. Their ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) image shows a nebula of 7 $^{\prime \prime }$ $\times$ 9 $^{\prime \prime }$ size (corresponding to 1.9 pc $\times$ 2.1 pc for an assumed distance of the LMC of 51.2 kpc), with a brighter lobe. Their NTT/EMMI spectra indicate an expansion velocity of the S 119 nebula of $\sim$25 km s^-1, and a ratio of H$_\alpha$/N  $\sim$  1, leading to [N  II]$\lambda$6583 Å/H$_\alpha$  $\sim$  0.75. They derive a radial velocity of the star and of the center of expansion in the range of 100 - 140 km s^-1. This casts doubt on S 119 being a member of the LMC the radial velocity of which as derived from H  I observations (Rohlfs et al. 1984) is typically in the range of 240 - 300 km s^-1.

From the line ratio of [S  II]6716/6731 Å Nota et al. (1994) derived an electron density of $n_{\rm e} = 800$ cm^-3and - assuming an electron temperature of $T_{\rm e}=7500$ K - estimated a nebula mass of $\sim$1.7 $M_\odot$. Similar results for the nebula were reported by Smith et al. (1998). They describe the nebula as elliptical of size 7 $.\!\!^{\prime\prime}$ $7 \times 8$ $.\!\!^{\prime\prime}$6, with $T_{\rm e} < 6800$ K as estimated from the non-detection of the [N  II]5755 Å line, and $n_{\rm e} = 680$ cm^-3. Little reddening and a radial velocity of $v_{\rm rad} = 118$ km s^-1 supports S 119 not being a member of the main body of the LMC. The main stellar parameters of S 119 have been determined by Crowther & Smith (1997) using two different models to account for the contamination of the nebula in the stellar spectrum: $T_{\rm eff} = 26~200 / 27~000~{\rm K}$, $L = 5.8\times 10^5 / 6.3\times 10^5~{L}_\odot$, and $\dot M = 1.34\times 10^{-5} / 1.20\times 10^{-5}~{M}_\odot~{\rm yr}^{-1}$.

In this contribution, we present results of an analysis of the kinematics of the nebula around S 119 and put it for the first time into perspective with the nebula's high-resolution morphology as obtained from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Moreover, we use the non-detection of S 119 and its nebula with the High Resolution Imager (HRI) on board the Röntgensatellit (ROSAT) for determining and discussing upper limits of the X-ray emission.