We report the discovery of a
transient near M31 using unfiltered CCD images taken on September 1.23
UT (about 18.0 mag) and September 2.23 (about 16.5 mag) using the
0.45m ROTSE-IIIb telescope at the McDonald Observatory. The object is
located at RA = 00h38m49.52s DEC = +40o19'54.1" (J2000) and was not
detected in ROTSE-IIIb data from August 31.23 UT (limiting mag about
18.7). A finding chart for the transient can be found at: http://grad40.as.utexas.edu/~quimby/tss/nova5.png