ULL-ASTRO-MASTER independent discovery of the 2025 eruption of the recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a
ATel #17514; F. Diaz-Segado, P. G. Berdayes, M. Contreras, T. Tundidor Rodriguez, J. Basurto Merino, A. Caballero-Almagro, A. Ceron, T. Ferrer-Lavina, B. Gandolfi, V. Ghiraldo, J. Hernandez Fung, L. Julia-Maroto, E. Lekaroz-Urriza, M. Manzano Garcia, E. Mejia-Martinez, J. Prieto Polo, M. Pulido-Torres, M. Quintana-Ansaldo, A. Schenone-Zanuzzi, A. Selezneva, E. Urquijo-Rodriguez (all ULL), M. Abdul-Masih (IAC and ULL), and I. Perez-Fournon (IAC and ULL)
on 1 Dec 2025; 01:15 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Ismael Perez-Fournon (ipf@iac.es)
Subjects: Optical, Nova, Transient
We report the independent discovery of the expected 2025 eruption of the recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a. We observed M31 with the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) 40-cm telescope (a Planewave Delta Rho 350 telescope equipped with a CMOS QHY600 camera) located at the LCO node at McDonald Observatory, Texas. The observation consisted of a single 180-sec exposure in the SDSS g' filter, that started on 2025-11-30 at 02:42:40 UT. M31N 2008-12a is well detected, with a magnitude of g' = 19.39 +/- 0.22, calibrated against PanSTARRS-1 DR2 stars and not corrected for galactic extinction. Our LCO observation took place about 6 hours before the one of K. Itagaki et al. (ATel #17511).
Based on observations made with the Las Cumbres Observatory education network telescopes that were upgraded through generous support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (program IAC2025B-010). 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 in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain).
