Discovery of a probable nova in M81
ATel #10295; S. C. Williams (Lancaster), M. Henze (CSIC-IEEC), K. Hornoch (Ondrejov), G. Sala, J. Jose, J. Figueira, P. Sin (UPC-IEEC), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), M. Hernanz (CSIC-IEEC), H. Meusinger (TLS), A. Kaur, D. H. Hartmann (Clemson), A. W. Shafter (SDSU)
on 20 Apr 2017; 17:43 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (scw@astro.ljmu.ac.uk)
Subjects: Optical, Nova, Transient
The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the discovery of a nova candidate in M81. The candidate, M81N 2017-03a, was discovered at a Hα magnitude of 19.9±0.2 on 2017-03-22.91 UT, with the 2-m Liverpool Telescope (LT). The position is calculated to be RA = 9h55m28.04s, Dec. = +69°05'26.0" (J2000, 1σ error 0.2"). Our photometry of the candidate is listed below:
Date [UT] | Mag | Err | Filter | Telescope
2017-03-22.91 | 19.9 | 0.2 | Hα | LT
2017-03-27.94 | 20.0 | 0.2 | Hα | LT
2017-04-03.88 | 20.1 | 0.2 | Hα | LT
The LT (
Steele et al. 2004) is a fully robotic 2-m telescope operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. Our observations use the IO:O optical CCD camera of the LT. The photometry is based on the SDSS DR7 photometry catalogue. The Hα magnitude is defined on the AB system where mHα = 0 for fλ = 2.53 × 10-9 erg/cm2/s/Å. Through a 90 Å wide filter, this corresponds to a zero point flux of ~2.3 × 10-7 erg/cm2/s.
