Confirmation of a recent optical nova candidate in M 31 and H-alpha identification of seven M 31 novae
ATel #1602; M. Henze, W. Pietsch, V. Burwitz (Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, MPE), A. Updike, D. H. Hartmann (Clemson University), P. Milne, G. Williams (University of Arizona)
on 4 Jul 2008; 12:18 UT
Credential Certification: Wolfgang Pietsch (wnp@mpe.mpg.de)
We report the confirmation of a nova candidate in M 31 recently reported
to us by K. Hornoch. We detected this object with an R magnitude of 18.7
in a 12x60s stacked R filter CCD image obtained on 2008 June 30.43 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 position of the nova
candidate is RA = 00h43m08.30s, Dec = +41d18'38.0" (J2000, accuracy of
0.3"), which is 4'30" east and 2'29" north of the core of M 31. This
candidate already is visible near the detection limit in a Super-LOTIS
image obtained on 2008 June 28.43. No object is visible at the
position of the nova candidate on Super-LOTIS images of 2008 February
01.09 UT (limiting R magnitude of ~19.5). 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 ). The magnitude was obtained
from a photometric solution using R magnitudes of the Local Group Survey
M 31 catalogue (Massey et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2478).
Furthermore, we report H-alpha observations of seven recent nova
candidates obtained with the Super-LOTIS telescope (12x60s stacked CCD
images) and a broad (70\AA) H-alpha filter. These objects can be
classified as novae since they show up as bright H-alpha sources (see
also ATel #1141). Note, that so far only nova candidate M31N 2008-05c
was spectroscopically identified as a FeII nova (ATel #1568). We
determine magnitudes from a photometric solution using R magnitudes of
the Local Group Survey M 31 catalogue for the H-alpha images. The
position accuracy of the J2000 coordinates is 0.4".
name RA Dec UT Rmag
M31N 2008-03b 00h42m34.20s +41d16'44.3" 2008-06-13.45 16.8
M31N 2008-05a 00h42m56.82s +41d11'52.8" 2008-06-13.48 16.7
M31N 2008-05b 00h42m52.88s +41d16'39.4" 2008-05-28.45 13.9
M31N 2008-05c 00h43m12.07s +41d19'16.1" 2008-05-28.43 15.5
M31N 2008-05d 00h44m01.77s +41d04'23.7" 2008-06-27.48 12.6
M31N 2008-06a 00h42m37.69s +41d12'30.2" 2008-06-27.46 16.6
M31N 2008-06b 00h42m27.80s +41d14'48.0" 2008-06-27.46 12.7
