Discovery and Classification of Nova in M31 : P60-M31-081230

ATel #1886; M. M. Kasliwal, A. Rau, M. Salvato, S. B. Cenko, E. O. Ofek, R. Quimby, S. R. Kulkarni (Caltech)
on 1 Jan 2009; 00:16 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Mansi Manoj Kasliwal (mansi@astro.caltech.edu)

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On UT 2008 Dec 30.207, P60-FasTING (Palomar 60-inch Fast Transients In Nearby Galaxies) discovered an optical transient in M31 at RA(J2000) = 00:43:05.027, DEC(J2000)=+41:17:52.25, offset from the nucleus by 233.4"E,103.8"N. P60-M31-081230 had a brightness of g = 20.5 +/- 0.2 at discovery. It was not detected by P60 to g > 22.0 on Dec 29.140. There is no counterpart in SIMBAD. Follow-up spectroscopy with the Double Beam Spectrograph on the Palomar Hale telescope on Dec 31.104 revealed prominent Balmer emission and strong P Cygni profiles of several Fe II lines. Following Williams et al 1994, we classify this transient as an Fe class classical nova.

Light Curve Summary:

  
Date (UT 2008)| Mag (g-band) |  


  
Dec 29.140    | >22.0        |  


  
Dec 30.207    | 20.5         |  


  
Dec 31.116    | 19.4         |