LCOGT photometric follow-up of the highly reddened Galactic nova AT 2023tow (Gaia23coj, ZTF23abceaws)

ATel #16259; H. Akoudad-Ekajouan, C. Araujo-Alvarez, C. Arrizabalaga-Diaz-Caneja, F. Barnes-Sanchez, P. Eguiguren-Arrizabalaga, A. Iglesias-Lopez, G. A. Jaimes-Illanes, P. Jimenez-Sanchez, S. Lamolda-Mir, A. Mang-Roman, G. Marrero-Ramallo, P. P. Meni-Gallardo, I. Ruiz-Cejudo (ULL), M. Sanchez-Andujar (ULL and IAC), V. Wienzek (ULL), E. Esparza-Borges, F. Tinaut-Ruano, and I. Perez-Fournon (IAC and ULL)
on 27 Sep 2023; 22:33 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Ismael Perez-Fournon (ipf@iac.es)

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AT 2023tow was reported to TNS as a red bright Galactic plane transient (Gaia23coj) by Hodgkin et al., with discovery magnitude G-Gaia = 12.26 +/- 0.2 on 2023-09-20 18:38:52. In ATel #16255, Soria et al. report the confirmation of this transient as a young, highly reddened Galactic Fe II nova with CO emission from Magellan / FIRE spectroscopy. The transient was also first detected by ZTF (ZTF23abceaws) on UT 2023-09-11 04:32:31 and by Palomar Gattini-IR on UT 2023-09-13 at J = 8.77 +/- 0.01 (reported in ATel #16255). It is located at a Galactic latitude of -1.1 degrees.

Here, we report follow-up observations of AT 2023tow with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope network (LCOGT) DeltaRho 350 telescope, equipped with a QHY600 CMOS camera, at Haleakala Observatory on UT 2023-09-27 from 05:17:56 to 05:22:17 using the LCOGT SDSS filters g', r', and i', and PanSTARRS zs and exposure times of 120, 60, 60, and 120 sec, respectively. We measure the following preliminary magnitudes, calibrated using the Gaia DR3 synthetic photometry catalog generated from the Gaia BP/RP mean spectra (Gaia Collaboration, 2022): g' = 16.00 +/- 0.05, r' = 13.21 +/- 0.03, i' = 11.78 +/- 0.03, and zs = 10.19 +/- 0.06, uncorrected for the large expected interstellar extinction in the line of sight.

We encourage follow-up observations.

The ZTF light curve is available at the ZTF/LSST brokers, e.g.: https://alerce.online/object/ZTF23abceaws

This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network and is based on observations made with the Las Cumbres Observatory's education network telescopes that were upgraded through generous support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. These observations are part of a course in Astrophysical Techniques of the Master in Astrophysics of the Astrophysics Department of the University of La Laguna and Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain).

Las Cumbres Observatory zs-band image