A new optical nova candidate in M 31

ATel #1591; V. Burwitz (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik(MPE), Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca (OAM)), W. Pietsch (MPE), M. Henze (MPE) S. Cikota (Observatorio La Sagra (OLS), OAM), F. Violat-Bordonau (OLS, OAM)
on 26 Jun 2008; 16:27 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Vadim Burwitz (burwitz@mpe.mpg.de)

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We report the discovery of an optical nova candidate in M 31 on 10*120s stacked unfiltered CCD images obtained with a 0.45m f/2.8 reflector and a SBIG STL-11000M CCD Camera (3008 pixels x 2674 pixels each 9 x 9 micron square), of the Observatorio de La Sagra, Spain, on 2008 Jun 26.11 with a magnitude of 16.1. The object is visible on all individual images. The position for the nova candidate is RA = 00h42m27.81s, Dec = +41d14'48.2" (J2000, accuracy of 0.4"), which is 186" west and 80" south of the core of M 31. All magnitudes given are obtained from a photometric solution using R magnitudes from the USNO-B1 catalogue. No object is visible (limiting magnitude of ~18.0) at the position of the nova candidate on images with the same camera on 2007 Dec 13 and 2008 Jan 6. Also there is no object brighter than 20 mag in R within 5" in the Local Group Survey M 31 catalogue (Massey et al. 2006, AJ 131, 2478). 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 ).