Optical Nova Candidates in M 31

ATel #1567; M. Henze (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, MPE), V. Burwitz (MPE), W. Pietsch (MPE), A. Updike (Clemson University, CU), P. Milne, G. Williams (University of Arizona), D. H. Hartmann (CU)
on 9 Jun 2008; 15:48 UT
Credential Certification: Wolfgang Pietsch (wnp@mpe.mpg.de)

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We report the discovery of an optical nova candidate in M 31 on two 11x60s stacked R filter CCD images obtained with the robotic 60cm telescope with an E2V CCD (2kx2k) of the Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (Super-LOTIS, located at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA).
The object was first detected on 2008 June 06.47 and 07.47 UT with respective magnitudes of 18.0 and 17.9. The position for the nova candidate is RA = 00h42m34.20s, Dec = +41d16'44.0" (J2000, accuracy of 0.3"), which is 1'54" west and 35" north of the core of M 31. All magnitudes given are obtained from a photometric solution using R magnitudes of the Local Group Survey M 31 catalogue (Massey et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2478). No object is visible at the position of the nova candidate on Super-LOTIS images of 2008 June 03.45 UT (limiting R magnitude of ~19.0). There is no entry in VizieR/CDS for this object and no minor planet could be found on this position using the MPC/IAU Minor Planet Checker (see http://scully.harvard.edu/~cgi/CheckMP ).

Furthermore, we can confirm a nova candidate in M 31 recently reported by Ovcharov et al. (ATel #1563) that we detected with an R magnitude of 17.3 on stacked Super-LOTIS images obtained on 2008 June 09.48. The position for the nova candidate is RA = 00h44m01.73s, Dec = +41d04'23.8" (J2000, accuracy of 0.3"), which is 14'35" east and 11'46" south of the core of M 31. This object seems to be a slow nova which still shows a rising luminosity.