Confirmation of two recent optical nova candidates in M 31
ATel #2165; M. Henze, F. Kaduk, V. Burwitz, W. Pietsch (Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, MPE), G. Papamastorakis, P. Reig (FORTH & Dept. of Physics, University of Crete), A. Strigachev (Inst. of Astronomy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
on 18 Aug 2009; 21:34 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Vadim Burwitz (burwitz@mpe.mpg.de)
We report the confirmation of two nova candidates in M31 recently reported to us by K. Hornoch (see also D. Bishop's website at http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/novae.html ). The objects were detected on three and two consecutive dithered stacked CCD images, obtained on 2009 Aug 13.05 and 13.08, respectively, with the 1.3m Ritchey Chretien f/7.5 telescope at Skinakas Observatory, Crete, Greece, using an Andor DZ436-BV CCD Camera (with a Marconi 2k x 2k chip with 13.5 microns sq. pixels) and a broad (75 Angstrom wide) H-alpha filter. Both objects are clearly visible on the individual images. The positions obtained for the nova candidates are RA = 00h42m41.22s, Dec = 41d17'01.3" and RA = 00h42m46.76, Dec = 41d15'37.3" (J2000, accuracy of 0.3"), which are 35" west, 52" north and 28" east, 32" south of the core of M 31, respectively. We determined magnitudes of 17.3 and 16.6, respectively, from a photometric solution using R magnitudes (see also ATel #1602) of the Local Group Survey M 31 catalogue (Massey et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 2478). The limiting magnitude at both candidate positions is 18.0. No objects are visible at the candidate positions on H-alpha images obtained with the same Telescope and camera on 2009 August 04.04 and 04.07 (limiting magnitude at both candidate positions 18.5).
Furthermore, we report H-alpha photometry using the Skinakas camera as above, of nova M31N 2008-07a (2009 Aug 13.05; 17.9, compare ATels #1609, #1773, #2147), and the nova candidates M31N 2009-02b (2009 Aug 13.06; 18.4, compare ATel #1935, #2147), M31N 2009-05a (2009 Aug 13.08; 16.5), and M31N 2009-05b (2009 Aug 13.06; 18.0), as well as the new candidate reported in ATel #2147 (2009 Aug 13.03; 17.2)
All magnitudes given are obtained from a photometric solution using R magnitudes of the Local Group Survey M 31 catalogue (see above). There is no entry in VizieR/CDS for the new objects and no minor planet could be found on the positions using the MPC/IAU Minor Planet Checker (see http://scully.harvard.edu/~cgi/CheckMP ).
