M31 optical transient
ATel #379; R. Quimby, P. Mondol, and F. Castro (University of Texas)
on 5 Jan 2005; 20:03 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Robert Quimby (quimby@astro.as.utexas.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Nova, Transient
We report the detection of an optical transient in M31 using
ROTSE-IIIb at the McDonald observatory, Texas. The transient is
located at 00h42m28.17s +41o09'55".5. We note this is about 5" from the
Chandra X-ray point source CXOM31 J004228.1+410959 (Kong et al. 2002,
ApJ 577,738). Unfiltered images taken on Dec. 26.06 UT show it was 16.4
mag; on Dec. 28.07 it was 16.2 mag and on Dec. 31.08 it was 16.9 mag. ROTSE-IIIb images taken on Dec. 15.06 show nothing at this location to 17.8 mag.
