Discovery of a Probable Nova in M81

ATel #13237; K. Hornoch, H. Kucakova (Ondrejov), S. C. Williams (Turku), G. Sala, J. Jose (UPC-IEEC), B. Stecklum (TLS), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), A. Kaur (PSU), D. H. Hartmann (Clemson), A. W. Shafter (SDSU)
on 29 Oct 2019; 15:19 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (s.williams7@lancaster.ac.uk)

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The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the discovery of a probable nova in M81 on a co-added 1440-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2019 Oct. 18.906 UT with the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov.

The object designated PNV J09554128+6905000 is located at R.A. = 9h55m41s.28, Decl. = +69o05'00".0 (equinox 2000.0), which is 43.4" east and 64.9" north of the center of M81 (see link to discovery image below).

Here we list the observing dates and corresponding photometry:

 
  Date [UT]    |  Mag  | Err  | Filter  | Telescope 
 
2019-09-15.135 | <21.3  |      | C       | OND  
2019-10-11.010 | <20.4  |      | C       | OND  
2019-10 18.906 |  19.8  | 0.3  | C       | OND  
2019-10 27.041 |  20.0  | 0.3  | C       | OND  
 

The OND 0.65-m is a reflecting telescope at the Ondrejov observatory operated jointly by the Astronomical Institute of ASCR and the Astronomical Institute of the Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic. It uses a Moravian Instruments G2-3200 CCD camera (with a Kodak KAF-3200ME sensor and standard BVRI photometric filters) mounted at the prime focus. The unfiltered OND photometry was calibrated against R-band comparison stars from Perelmuter & Racine (1995).

Discovery image