Spectroscopic confirmation and additional photometry of the very bright nova M31N 2015-01a
ATel #6941; A. Kurtenkov (University of Sofia, IA-NAO, BAS), E. Ovcharov (University of Sofia), P. Nedialkov (University of Sofia), A. Kostov (IA-NAO, BAS), R. Bachev (IA-NAO, BAS), R. V. Munoz Dimitrova (IA-NAO, BAS), V. Popov (IA-NAO, BAS), A. Valcheva (University of Sofia)
on 17 Jan 2015; 10:46 UT
Credential Certification: Evgeni Ovcharov (evgeni@phys.uni-sofia.bg)
We report the ongoing increase of the optical brightness of Nova M31 2015-01a (ATel #6911, ATel #6924). Four 900s spectra were obtained on Jan 16.8 UT with the FoReRo2 focal reducer at the 2 m RCC telescope. The H-alpha line shows a considerably stronger emission than two days ago. The peak of the emission is blue-shifted to 6546 with a FWHM of about 800 km/s. The combined spectrum, binned at 4A, is available at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxjnggb5q6b5ss6/201501_nova_normalized.png?dl=0
Additional photometry was carried out on 2015 Jan 15 and 16 using the 50/70 cm Schmidt telescope. The available magnitudes are:
2015 Jan 15.82014 UT R=16.018 +/- 0.028 (3x60s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
2015 Jan 15.82986 UT R=15.981 +/- 0.019 (5x300s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
2015 Jan 15.84514 UT B=16.965 +/- 0.031 (3x300s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
2015 Jan 16.72708 UT R=15.633 +/- 0.020 (5x60s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
2015 Jan 16.74167 UT R=15.598 +/- 0.016 (5x300s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
2015 Jan 16.76146 UT B=16.521 +/- 0.022 (3x300s) 50/70 cm Schmidt
The BR light curve is available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2id1isdjnmrz4e/201501_nova_lc.png?dl=0
Further observations are necessary as this appears to be one of the brightest novae in M31 in recent years.
