MASTER detection of Rapid Optical Transient near the Intriguing Object

ATel #5360; P. Balanutsa, D. Denisenko, E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, N. Tiurina, V. Kornilov, A. Belinski, N. Shatskiy, V. Chazov, A. Kuznetsov, V. Yecheistov, V. Vladimirov (Moscow State University, SAI), V. Yurkov, Y. Sergienko, D. Varda, E. Sinyakov, A. Gabovich (Blagoveshchensk Educational University), K. Ivanov, S. Yazev, N. Budnev, E. Konstantinov, O. Chuvalaev, V. Poleshchuk, O. Gress, A. Frolova (Irkutsk State University), V. Krushinsky, I. Zalozhnih, A. Popov, A. Bourdanov (Ural Federal University), A. Parkhomenko, A. Tlatov, D. Dormidontov, V. Senik (Kislovodsk solar station of the Pulkovo observatory RAS), P. Podvorotny, V. Shumkov, S. Shurpakov (MASTER team members), H. Levato, C. Saffe (ICATE), C. Mallamaci, C. Lopez and F. Podest (OAFA)
on 4 Sep 2013; 15:59 UT
Credential Certification: Vladimir Lipunov (lipunov2007@gmail.com)

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MASTER OT J002631.09+444127.4 - fast transient near the elongated object

MASTER-Amur auto-detection system discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 00h 26m 31.09s +44d 41m 27.4s on 2013-09-02.65111 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 18.5m (limit 19.8m). The OT is seen in 2 images in both tubes. There is no minor planet at this place. We have reference image without OT on 2012-09-24.66358 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 20.2m.

The object has brightened within 1.5 minutes. It was not visible on 15:34:23 UT images (60-sec exposure, limit 19.8m) but appears on 15:35:58 and 15:37:36 UT images at 18.7m and 18.5m, respectively. Animation of three MASTER-Amur images (combined from two tubes) is uploaded to http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/J002631+444127-MASTER-anim.gif

The OT is located between two objects on the Palomar plates. One of them (1.5" south-west of the OT) is red and appears elongated toward the OT. The other object (1.5" north-east of the OT) is green and star-like. Color-combined DSS (BRIR) finder chart is posted at http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/J002631+444127-BRIR5x5.jpg (200% zoom). The red object is likely identical to WISE J002630.98+444126.3 (W1=15.80+/-0.05, W2=15.81+/-0.13). It is not present in 2MASS or any other catalogs. This area of sky in Andromeda is not covered by SDSS.

There were no gamma-ray bursts detected around this time on Sep. 02. The object may be of extragalactic nature. Deep imaging and spectrum of the object are required. We also encourage checking the archival observations of this region, especially PAndAS images with CFHT, since the OT is located 10378" (2.88 deg) west and 12319" (3.42 deg) north of the center of M31. The discovery and reference images are available at: http://master.sai.msu.ru/static/OT/002631.09444127.4.png

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