Discovery of a Probable Nova in M81

ATel #12114; K. Hornoch, H. Kucakova, P. Fatka (Ondrejov), S. C. Williams (Lancaster), M. Henze (SDSU), G. Sala, J. Jose (UPC-IEEC), H. Meusinger (TLS), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), A. Kaur (PSU), D. H. Hartmann (Clemson), A. W. Shafter (SDSU)
on 15 Oct 2018; 09:26 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (scw@astro.ljmu.ac.uk)

Tweet

The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the discovery of a probable nova in M81 on a co-added 3150-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2018 Oct. 12.151 UT with the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov.

The object designated PNV J09560988+6859108 is located at R.A. = 9h56m09s.88, Decl. = +68o59'10".8 (equinox 2000.0), which is 197.1" east and 284.3" south 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 
 
2018-10-10.153 | <21.7  |      | C       | OND  
2018-10-11.149 | <20.8  |      | C       | OND  
2018-10-12.151 |  20.1  | 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 unfiltered OND photometry was calibrated against R-band comparison stars from Perelmuter & Racine (1995).

Discovery image