HR Carinae - A luminous blue variable surrounded by an arc-shaped nebula

New high and medium dispersion spectroscopic observations of the luminous blue variable (LBV) star HR Car are presented, showing that this star has a multiple shell expanding atmosphere and undergoes spectral variations apparently correlated with the light variations similarly to the other LBVs. Most striking are the very broad emission wings (FWZI of about 3000 km/s) of the Balmer lines, reminiscent from the broad lines observed in the spectra of Of and WR stars. A kinematic distance of 5.4 kpc and a bolometric magnitude of -9.4 put HR Car among the most luminous stars of the Galaxy. The narrow band filter imagery also reveals an arc-shaped jet like nebula associated with HR Car. Spectroscopic observations of this nebula reveal an emission nature with very low excitation. Like the star itself, the nebula is characterized by a significant N/O overabundance, probably due to the presence of nuclear processed material ejected by the star.