SOAR spectroscopic confirmation of Gaia23azk as a highly reddened Galactic classical nova
ATel #15956; Jay Strader, Elias Aydi, Ryan Urquhart, Laura Chomiuk (Michigan State University), Kirill Sokolovsky (Illinois)
on 21 Mar 2023; 19:01 UT
Credential Certification: Jay Strader (strader@pa.msu.edu)
We report optical spectroscopy of Gaia23azk/AT2023ctx, which was first detected by Gaia on UT 2023-03-05 at G = 13.9 mag. This is the first Gaia observation of this field since 2022-11-06, so the transient may have occurred well before the first Gaia detection.
On 2023-03-16.4 we obtained a low-resolution spectrum using the Goodman spectrograph (Clemens et al. 2004, SPIE, 5492, 331) on the 4.1 m SOAR telescope, covering the wavelength range 4800-8800 A. The spectrum is characterized by a red continuum and strong broad flat-topped emission lines of O I, H I, and He I. H-alpha has a FWHM of around 2300 km/s. There is no continuum emission below 5500 A, consistent with very high foreground reddening. The spectrum is that of a reddened classical nova after optical peak, marking Gaia23azk as the second confirmed Galactic nova of 2023.
This ATel is based on observations obtained at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, which is a joint project of the Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia, Inovacoes e Comunicacoes do Brasil (MCTIC/LNA), the U.S. National Science Foundation's National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Michigan State University (MSU). We also acknowledge ESA Gaia, DPAC and the Photometric Science Alerts Team.
