Independent discovery of the bright M31 nova AT 2023uiq (ULL-ASTRO-MASTER-1) with the Las Cumbres Observatory DeltaRho 350 telescope at McDonald Observatory

ATel #16286; A. Mang-Roman, 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, 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 13 Oct 2023; 12:57 UT
Credential Certification: Ismael Perez-Fournon (ipf@iac.es)

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We report the independent discovery of the bright M31 nova AT 2023uiq (with internal name of our M31 monitoring survey ULL-ASTRO-MASTER-1) with the Las Cumbres Observatory Planewave Delta Rho 350 telescope, equipped with a QHY600 CMOS camera, at McDonald Observatory. This transient was first reported to TNS by Mi Zhang and Xing Gao (XOSS, Xingming Observatory), XM115MZ, with first detection on UT 2023-10-07 18:22:30 at mag 18.58 +/- 0.33 (Clear). It was also reported by MASTER (MASTER OT J004148.67+413121.6) from observations on UT 2023-10-07 21:05:53 at mag 18.9 (Clear) and by ATLAS (ATLAS23twx) on UT 2023-10-10 09:55:31 at cyan-ATLAS = 16.897 +/- 0.022. We measure the following magnitudes in 180 sec exposures in the SDSS g' and r' filters, calibrated using the Gaia DR3 synthetic photometry catalog generated from the Gaia BP/RP mean spectra (Gaia Collaboration, 2022): g' = 18.40 +/- 0.06 on UT 2023-10-08 02:37:08 and r' = 18.51 +/- 0.10 on UT 2023-10-08 02:40:21.
AT 2023uiq has been spectroscopically classified by Claudio Balcon and by Jingyuan Zhao and Xing Gao, who confirm AT 2023uiq as a nova in M31.

This transient has also been detected by ZTF (ZTF23abiwrwo) with first detection on 2023-10-09 06:52:17 at r-ZTF = 17.411 +/- 0.039. ATLAS forced photometry shows that the transient is now after maximum light.

The ZTF light curve is available at the ZTF/LSST brokers, e.g. Lasair, ALeRCE, ANTARES and Fink:

https://lasair-ztf.lsst.ac.uk/objects/ZTF23abiwrwo/
https://alerce.online/object/ZTF23abiwrwo
https://antares.noirlab.edu/loci/ANT2023kzi56ez0yaxt
https://fink-portal.org/ZTF23abiwrwo

This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network (program IAC2023B-001) 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. We acknowledge the use of TNS; ZTF and its brokers Lasair, ALeRCE, ANTARES, and Fink; and ATLAS and its forced photometry server. We thank David Bishop for his compilation of extragalactic novae. 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 g'-band image