[BAA 00303] Alert! - Nova Vulpeculae 200

[Rick]

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00303            http://www.britastro.org/

In CBET Electronic Telegram No. 1027, received at 22:02UT on August 08, S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reported the discovery of a possible nova by Hiroshi Abe (Yatsuka-cho, Matsue, Shimane-ken, Japan) on survey frames taken around Aug. 8.54UT using a Canon EOS Kiss Digital Camera (+ 35-mm f/2.8 Pentax lens).  Early measurements showed the object to be about magnitude 9.4-9.5.

By Aug. 9.00, the V magnitude had brightened to about 8.9 (R. Miles) and at Aug. 9.27 the nova had reached 8.3 (N. James, T. Crawford).  Robin Leadbeater from spectra he recorded last night has confirmed the nova, which is located at RA 19 54 24.63 Dec. +20 52 52.1 as measured by Nick James.

At 21:30UT this evening, the nova had already embarked on its apparent decline at a rate in excess of 1 mag/day whilst at the same time reddening in colour.  I have established a comparison star sequence based on measurements of the following Tycho stars:

1628-1075  V=8.83,  V-I=+1.40
1628-0666  V=9.80,  V-I=+1.18
1628-0130  V=9.50,  V-I=+0.48
1628-0527  V=10.24,  V-I=+0.24
1628-1171  V=10.15,  V-I=+0.14

Observers are encouraged to monitor this object using one or more of the above stars.  The latest data I have show that at 22:30UT the nova had reached V=8.34 and was fading at a rate of 0.8 mag/day.

Richard Miles