Independent Discovery of a Probable Nova in M81

ATel #13556; K. Hornoch, H. Kucakova (Ondrejov), S. C. Williams (Turku), G. Sala, J. Jose (UPC-IEEC), B. Stecklum (TLS), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), A. Kaur (PSU), D. H. Hartmann (Clemson), A. W. Shafter (SDSU)
on 15 Mar 2020; 14:28 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (steven.williams@utu.fi)

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The M81 nova monitoring collaboration reports the independent discovery of a probable nova in M81 on a co-added 2700-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2020 Mar. 15.084 UT with the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov. The object is faintly visible also on a prediscovery co-added 2070-s unfiltered CCD frame taken on 2020 Mar. 7.906 UT with the same instrumentation.

The object was independently discovered and first announced by Z. Xu and X. Gao and designated as PNV J09555481+6903102 = AT 2020ely. The object was designated by us as M81N 2020-03a and is located at R.A. = 9h55m54s.85, Decl. = +69o03'10".6 (equinox 2000.0), which is 116.2" east and 44.5" 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 
 
2020-03-01.822 | <21.7  |      | C       | OND  
2020-03-07.906 |  20.8  | 0.4  | C       | OND  
2020-03-15.084 |  20.1  | 0.25 | 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