Discovery of an Apparent Nova in M81

ATel #12525; K. Hornoch, H. Kucakova (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 21 Feb 2019; 22:06 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (s.williams7@lancaster.ac.uk)

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The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the discovery of an apparent nova in M81 on a co-added 990-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2019 Feb. 18.205 UT with the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov.

The object designated PNV J09552547+6903458 is located at R.A. = 9h55m25s.47, Decl. = +69o03'45".8 (equinox 2000.0), which is 41.3" east and 9.3" 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 
 
2019-02-05.083 | <20.9  |      | C       | OND  
2019-02-14.987 |  20.1  | 0.4  | C       | OND  
2019-02-15.787 |  19.8  | 0.3  | C       | OND 
2019-02-17.175 |  19.4  | 0.25 | C       | OND 
2019-02-18.205 |  17.9  | 0.1  | 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