Independent discovery and early multi-band photometry of the M31 nova 2019sxc with the INT Wide Field Camera

ATel #13272; A. Madrigal-Aguado (ULL), L. Alvarez-Hernandez (ULL), J. Bayer (ULL), A. Graña-Gonzalez (ULL), J. Kalies (ULL), A. J. Maas (ULL), O. Maireles-Gonzalez (ULL), J. Orell-Miquel (ULL), B. Perez-Perez (ULL), F. Tinaut-Ruano (ULL & IAC), I. V. Yanes-Rizo (ULL), R. Shirley (IAC and ULL) and I. Perez-Fournon (ULL & IAC)
on 6 Nov 2019; 19:46 UT
Credential Certification: Ismael Perez-Fournon (ipf@iac.es)

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We report the independent discovery of the M31 nova AT 2019sxc (= PNV J00430155+4117599, ZTF19acgfhfd, PS19ghr, and MASTER OT J004301.53+411758.9) and early multi-band photometry based on observations with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) of the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) on October 19 2019 using the WFC Sloan g, r and i and the RGOZ filters. The nova is well detected in all the bands. This transient was independently discovered by Hornoch and Kucakova (ATel # 13207) and designated PNV J00430155+4117599. It was reported to TNS (AT 2019sxc) by the ZTF consortium (ZTF19acgfhfd) as well as by Pan-STARRS1 (PS19ghr) and MASTER OT (MASTER OT J004301.53+411758.9). AT 2019sxc has been spectroscopically classified as an Fe II-type nova in M31 by Williams et al. (ATel # 13228) and by Fabrika et al. (ATel # 13230). Our INT WFC observations reported here are the earliest detections of AT 2019sxc, with the first INT WFC detection about 4.2 hours before the first ZTF one.

The INT WFC images were astrometrically calibrated using Gaia DR2. The magnitudes, calibrated using PanSTARRS-1 DR2 are:

g = 19.57 +/- 0.04 (2019 October 19 23:16:28 UTC), 600 seconds
r = 19.52 +/ 0.07 (2019 October 19 23:30:02 UTC), 600 seconds
i = 19.50 +/- 0.08 (2019 October 19 23:42:30 UTC), 600 seconds
z = 19.50 +/- 0.12 (2019 October 19 23:53:52 UTC), 600 seconds

AT 2019sxc had a maximum in its light curve on October 23 2019 03:10:00 UTC with r (ZTF) = 16.818 +/- 0.040. It is still bright, g (ZTF) = 18.316 +/- 0.070 on November 6 2019 04:54:51 UTC.

The light curve of AT 2019sxc in the ZTF g and r bands is available at, e.g. ANTARES, and at the other ZTF brokers (Lasair, MARS and ALeRCE).

Based on observations made with the Isaac Newton Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. We are grateful to the ING staff for help with the observations and to the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), Transient Name Server (TNS), and the ZTF brokers Lasair, ANTARES, MARS, and ALeRCE.

Isaac Newton Telescope Wide Field Camera Sloan r-band 2' x 2' image cutout