GROWTH-India Telescope observations of the nova AT 2022yax in M31
ATel #15706; Judhajeet Basu (IIA), Sudhanshu Barway (IIA), G. C. Anupama (IIA), Harsh Kumar (IITB), Vishwajeet Swain (IITB), Varun Balerao (IITB) and Rigzin Norbu (IIA)
on 21 Oct 2022; 06:42 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Sudhanshu Barway (sudhanshu.barway@iiap.res.in)
We report pre-discovery magnitudes of the nova AT 2022yax, discovered by the Zwicky Transient Factory (ATel #15700) in M31 based on observations with the 0.7m GROWTH-India Telescope (GIT). AT 2022yax was serendipitously observed on October 18 October while monitoring novae in M31 in the field of view (0.7 degree) of our observations, and below, we report an estimated magnitude:
| Time (Start) |
Filter |
Magnitude +/- Error |
| 2022-10-18T20:25:03.66 |
r' |
19.42 +/- 0.07 |
| 2022-10-18T20:38:24.86 |
g' |
20.64 +/- 0.26 (Forced photometry) |
In the g' band, the nova was below the 3-sigma detection limit; hence, the g' magnitude has been estimated by forced photometry at AT2022yax's coordinates. The magnitudes are calibrated against PanSTARRS DR1 (Chambers et al., 2016) and not corrected for Galactic extinction.
The GROWTH India Telescope (GIT; Kumar et al. 2022) is a 70-cm telescope with a 0.7-degree field of view, set up by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) with funding from DST-SERB and IUSSTF. It is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (Hanle), operated by IIA. We acknowledge funding by the IITB alumni batch of 1994, which partially supports the operations of the telescope. Telescope technical details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/growthindia/
