The discovery of the Galactic Nova candidate VVV-NOV-003 by the VVV Survey

ATel #5212; J. C. Beamin (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), D. Minniti (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Vatican Observatory, The Milky Way Millennium Nucleus), R. K. Saito (Universidade Federal de Sergipe) and R. Kurtev (Universidad de Valparaiso)
on 18 Jul 2013; 15:23 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Novae
Credential Certification: Roberto Saito (rsaito@astro.puc.cl)

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We report the discovery of the third likely Galactic Nova in the VVV Survey data (vvvsurvey.org; Minniti et al. 2010, New Astronomy, 15, 433). Ks-band observations taken on October 2011 06 and 07 show a stellar object increasing in brightness from Ks=15.80 mag to Ks=15.48 mag. In the first observation of the 2012 season (March 07) the object appears as bright source with Ks=10.70 mag. Similar magnitudes with small amplitude oscillations are seen over the whole 2012 season which suggest a very slow nova (see table below).

The coordinates of VVV-NOV-003 are RA, DEC= 17:50:19.27, -33:39:07.3 (J2000), which corresponds to l,b= -3.523,-3.294 deg. Previous VVV observations taken during 2010 and 2011 show no detection at the target position, which allow us to infer the nova progenitor was fainter than the limiting magnitude of Ks=17.13 mag in the field. The possible nova outburst occurred around October 2011 with an amplitude Delta_Ks>6.4 mag. Spectra taken with SOFI at the NTT-ESO Telescope on July 2013 confirm that VVV-NOV-003 is nova-like object.

According to the VVV reddening maps (Gonzalez et al., 2012, A&A, 543, 13) assuming the Cardelli et al. (1989, ApJ, 345, 245 2009) extinction law, the extinction for a 2 arcmin region around the target position is E(J-Ks)=0.46 mag, corresponding to AV=2.67 mag. There are no previous entries in the literature for the target position.

 
VVV-NOV-003 Table of Observations  
 
Date  (UT)     filter    mag    flag 
2010-09-12.03324 Ks beyond detection 
2010-09-25.09114 Ks beyond detection 
2011-08-03.20642 Ks beyond detection 
2011-08-08.16441 Ks beyond detection 
2011-10-06.03173 Ks 15.80+/-0.12 -1 
2011-10-07.05354 Ks 15.48+/-0.09 -1 
2012-03-07.34101 Ks 10.70+/-0.01 -1 
2012-03-26.34967 Ks 10.86+/-0.01 -1 
2012-06-07.18695 Ks 10.74+/-0.01 -1 
2012-06-17.24375 Ks 10.59+/-0.01 -1 
2012-06-26.03698 Ks 10.59+/-0.01 -1 
2012-07-04.02482 Ks 10.77+/-0.01 -1 
2012-07-07.24211 Ks 10.59+/-0.01 -1 
2012-07-15.19040 Ks 10.58+/-0.01 -1 
2012-07-21.20701 Ks 10.89+/-0.01 +1 
2012-07-22.08256 Ks 10.74+/-0.01 -1 
2012-07-24.11377 Ks 10.65+/-0.01 +1 
2012-07-26.13918 Ks 10.77+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-01.00987 Ks 10.50+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-02.18762 Ks 10.50+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-04.98702 Ks 10.37+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-05.20305 Ks 10.13+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-29.12954 Ks 10.42+/-0.01 -1 
2012-08-31.06705 Ks 10.78+/-0.01 +1 
2012-09-02.14487 Ks 10.04+/-0.01 -1 
2012-09-12.09912 Ks 10.60+/-0.01 -1 
2012-09-13.03431 Ks 10.92+/-0.01 -1 

The VVV data are in the natural VISTA Vegamag system.
Photometric flags are described in Saito et al. 2012 (A&A, 537, A107):
-1 stellar object
+1 non-stellar object

Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge use of data from the ESO Public Survey programme ID 179.B-2002 taken with the VISTA telescope, and data products from the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.