Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Possible Nova in Centaurus

Following an alert note of Grzegorz Pojmanski, Dorota Szczygiel and Bogumil Pilecki of Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory, about their discovery of a possible nova in Centaurus at coordinates: A.R.= 14h 35m 03s; Decl.= -64o 06.4', through the ASAS3V instrument of The All Sky Automated Survey, we performed some follow-up of this object, remotely from the Skylive-Grove Creek Observatory (Trunkey, Australia).

Our LBVRI images, obtained on 2008 Sep. 2.4 to 2.5, through a 0.3-m, f/6 reflector + CCD, shows the presence of a relatively bright counterpart at coordinates:

R.A. = 14h35m02s.54, Decl. = -64o06'20".0 (equinox 2000.0; UCAC-2 catalogue reference stars).

Comparison with an archive Poss-2 Red plate (obtained on 1991, Jul.17) and with a Poss-2 Infrared plate (obtained 1981, Mar.02) show the presence at this coordinates of an extremely faint optical counterpart, at the detection limit of the plate. These are the results of our multicolor photometry (comparison stars HIP_71437 and HIP_71400): 2008, Sept. 2.39: B=9.54, V=8.63, R=8.03, I= 7.42; Sept. 2.46: B=9.69, V=8.70, R=8.10, I= 7.60 (accuracy about 0.05 magn. in each color). An estimation by P. Camilleri (Hurstville, NSW, Australia) performed on 2008, Sept. 2.48, through a 20x80 binocular, provides a visual magnitude of 8.4.

Our image is available here:

http://tinyurl.com/5mcxrs

by Giovanni Sostero, Ernesto Guido and Paul Camilleri

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