Recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a: ATLAS pre-discovery detection and forced photometry of the 2023 eruption
ATel #16370; I. Perez-Fournon, F. Poidevin, E. Reyes-Rodriguez (IAC and ULL), 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, and F. Tinaut-Ruano (IAC and ULL)
on 7 Dec 2023; 19:17 UT
Credential Certification: Ismael Perez-Fournon (ipf@iac.es)
Subjects: Optical, Request for Observations, Nova, Transient
Referred to by ATel #: 16386
Sun et al. (ATel #16361) have reported the discovery of the 2023 eruption of the remarkable M31 nova M31N 2008-12a
(sea also Shafter et al. ATel #16362, Basu et al. ATel #16364, Zhang et al. ATel #16365, and the spectroscopic confirmation by Basu et al. ATel #16367)
about one year and three days after the previous eruption in 2022 discovered with the Las Cumbres Observatory and reported by Perez-Fournon et al. (ATel #15786),
Reyes-Rodriguez et al. (ATel #15902), and Reyes-Rodriguez et al. (2023, RNAAS, 7, 154).
We have used the ATLAS forced photometry server (Shingles et al. 2021, AstroNote 2021-7) to search for ATLAS detections of this year's eruption of
M31N 2008-12a and found clear (> 5-sigma) detections starting on MJD = 60283.35380 (2023-12-05.35380 UT) at ATLAS orange = 19.137 +/- 0.180
, i.e about 4.5 hours before the earliest
detection reported so far, by Zhang et al. using the 0.50-m f/6.8 Lulin-ASIAA Telescope for Transients and Education (LATTE) located at Lulin Observatory (Taiwan).
The linked figure shows the ATLAS "reduced" (without reference image subtraction) and "difference" images of the first ATLAS pre-discovery detection as well as a stacked
image of the "reduced" images of the following day.
We thank David Bishop for his compilation of extragalactic novae. More information and images of previous eruptions of M31N 2008-12a is available at: https://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2008/nm3112a.html
M31N 2008-12a: ATLAS detection of the 2023 eruption.
