Independent Discovery of an Apparent Nova in M81

ATel #10133; K. Hornoch (Ondrejov), H. Kucakova, J. Vrastil (Charles University), S. C. Williams (Lancaster), M. Henze (CSIC-IEEC), H. Meusinger, C. Pohl (TLS), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), A. Kaur, D. H. Hartmann (Clemson), G. Sala, J. Jose, J. Figueira, P. Sin (UPC-IEEC), M. Hernanz (CSIC-IEEC), A. W. Shafter (SDSU)
on 27 Feb 2017; 12:05 UT
Credential Certification: Martin Henze (henze@ice.cat)

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The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the independent discovery of an apparent nova in M81 on a co-added 3510-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2017 Feb. 24.119 UT with the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov. The candidate is also detected on 2x120s R filter and 2x600s Hα filter images taken with the 2-m Alfred-Jensch-Telescope of the Tautenburg observatory (TLS) in the subsequent night. The clear Hα detection indicates that this object is most likely a nova.

The object designated PNV J09563149+6907301 was first announced and designated AT2017blf by F. Castellani et al. (see here) and is located at R.A. = 9h56m31s.49, Decl. = +69o07'30".1 (equinox 2000.0), which is 312.1" east and 215.0" 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  
2017-02-19.962 | <21.9 |      | C       | OND 
2017-02-24.119 |  20.1 | 0.2  | C       | OND 
2017-02-24.864 |  20.2 | 0.3  | H-alpha | TLS 
2017-02-24.875 |  20.5 | 0.3  | R       | TLS 
2017-02-26.928 |  20.3 | 0.2  | 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 2-m TLS of the Tautenburg observatory, Germany, was operated in Schmidt camera mode using a 2k x 2k CCD with a 0.7 x 0.7 sq. deg field of view. The unfiltered photometry was calibrated against R-band comparison stars from Perelmuter & Racine (1995). The TLS R and Hα magnitudes were both calibrated using the SDSS DR7 photometry catalogue.

Discovery image