Discovery of three nova candidates in Virgo by CFHT-COVET

ATel #1967; M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech), R. Quimby (Caltech), M. H. van Kerkwijk (UToronto), S. R. Kulkarni (Caltech), D. A. Howell (LCOGT/UCSB), R. Breton (UToronto)
on 13 Mar 2009; 07:00 UT
Credential Certification: Mansi Manoj Kasliwal (mansi@astro.caltech.edu)

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Continued search by CFHT-COVET reveals three likely nova candidates in the Virgo Cluster:

  
-------------+-----------+-----------+----+-------+-------------+  
    Name     | RA (J2000)|DEC (J2000)|Mag | Host? |   Offset    |  
             |           |           |(r')|       | from Host   |  
-------------+-----------+-----------+----+-------+-------------+  
COVET-090223A|12:34:09.50|+07:40:39.9|22.6|NGC4526|96.2"E,77.0"S| 


  
COVET-090224A|12:28:59.02|+13:58:49.3|22.8|NGC4459|15.0"W,6.3"N | 


  
COVET-090224E|12:43:40.97|+11:34:15.9|22.8|M60    |14.6"E,66.2"N|    
-------------+-----------+-----------+----+-------+-------------+  

The above galaxies are identified as hosts based only on spatial coincidence. The apparent magnitudes reported above are as on the discovery date. If the assumed hosts are correct, the absolute magnitude of these events at peak are -8.4, -9.5 and -8.6 respectively suggesting these are likley novae. Spectroscopic follow-up of COVET-090224A with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on the Keck I telescope on Feb 28.440 revealed no prominent emission line features between 3500-5500 Ang or 6400-8800 Ang. We thank the LRIS observers J. Kenney and H. Crowl. We note that in addition to these candidates, fourteen other faint but likely background supernovae/AGN candidates were discovered. We have decided to no longer announce faint (r > 21) background candidates, given the challenges in follow-up. If anyone is interested in being notified about such events, please email us. We thank the CFHT-QSO staff for service observing.