Optical and Infrared Spectroscopy of Nova Scuti 2018
ATel #11817; Richard Rudy, Jon Mauerhan, Ray Russell, John Subasavage, Sloane Wiktorowicz, Matthew Varakian (Aerospace Corporation)
on 5 Jul 2018; 03:01 UT
Credential Certification: Richard Rudy (richard.j.rudy@aero.org)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Optical, Nova
Referred to by ATel #: 11826
Nova Scuti 2018, discovered June 29.577UT by Sakurai and observed spectroscopically by Gard and Sollecchia (ATEL #11802), was observed 2018 July 4.27UT from 0.47-2.5 microns using the VNIRIS spectrograph on the Aerospace Corporation's one meter telescope in El Segundo, California. Although the emission line gas was dominated by lines of H I, C I, N I, O I, Ca II, and Na I, He I 1.083 was already present. He I was not detected in the high resolution, July 1 spectrum of Gard and Sollecchia. That change, plus, Nova Scuti's comparatively broad lines for a Fe II type nova (1800 km/sec for Paschen Beta and Brackett Gamma), suggest that the spectrum is evolving fairly rapidly. The relative strengths of the O I lines at 0.8446, 1.1287, and 1.3165 microns and the very red optical continuum indicate that the interstellar reddening is significantly greater than one magnitude in E(B-V).
