[IAUC] CBET 2140: 20100123 : POSSIBLE NOVA IN SAGITTARIUS

[IAUC mailing list]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 2140
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS en CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT en CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


POSSIBLE NOVA IN SAGITTARIUS
     John Seach, Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia, reports his discovery of
a possible nova on three 6-s CCD exposures (limiting mag 11) obtained on Jan.
20.22 UT with a Nikon D300 camera (+ 50-mm f/1.4 lens + orange filter).  The
variable star is located at R.A. = 18h07m26s, Decl. -29d01' (equinox 2000.0);
Nothing is visible at this position on his images taken on 2009 Nov. 15.89
(limiting magnitude 11.5), though several faint stars are located near this
position on a European Southern Observatory photograph taken in 1987 (via
the Digitized Sky Survey).
     Following posting on the Central Bureau's unconfirmed-objects webpage,
S. Kiyota (Tsukuba, Japan) reports that CCD images taken on Jan. 22 with a
20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (+ Apogee Alta E47+ CCD camera) yield the
following position for the possible nova:  R.A. = 18h07m26s.79, Decl.
-29d00'42".8, evidently noting that nothing is visible at this position on
a DSS image.  Kiyota also provides the following magnitudes for the new
object:  Jan. 22.862 UT, V = 8.98, R_c = 8.38; 22.864, I_c = 7.78.
W. Vollmann, Vienna, Austria, reports that he measured position end figures
27s.0, 44" and green mag 9.3 from unfiltered images taken by H. Koberger
(Vilaflor, Tenerife) with a digital SLR camera (+ 300-mm camera lens) on
Jan. 22.287, adding that nothing is visible at this position within 10"
on Digitized Sky Survey blue and red images to limiting mag approximately 18.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 January 23                  (CBET 2140)              Daniel W. E. Green