Seiji Ueda (Hokkaido, Japan) reports the discovery of a transient object in Perseus at mag 10.6 on Nov 25.807 (TCP J04291884+4354232). It appears to have a large outburst amplitude of 9.2 mag and might be a nova. UPDATE Nov 25 at 14.43: now confirmed as classical nova!!
There was an independent discovery by Stanislav Korotkij, Kirill Sokolovskij, and Olga Smolyankina, also at 10.6 on Nov 25.8438 (they refer to it as TCP J04291888+4354233)
20201123 <136c (Seiji Ueda)
20201123.57 <172g (ASAS-SN survey (Shappee+ 2014; Kochanek+ 2017))
20201125.37 171g (ASAS-SN survey (Shappee+ 2014; Kochanek+ 2017))
20201125.807 10.6c (Seiji Ueda; Canon EOS 6D digital camera + f/3.2 200-mm lens)
20201125.8438 10.6 (Stanislav Korotkij, Kirill Sokolovskij, and Ol'ga Smol'yankina; F=135mm f/2.0 telephoto lens and ST8300M unfiltered CCD)
20201125.913 10.2CV (Jeremy Shears, Cheshire; 28 cm SCT + Starlight Xpress H9 CCD)
20201125.938 10.4v (Gary Poyner, Birmingham; 22 cm refl)
20201126.115 10.22V (Katsumi Yoshimoto; 0.25-m f/3.4 reflector + CCD; remotely Mayhill, New Mexico)
The position of the object (noted by Seiji Ueda ) is RA 04 29 18.84 Dec +43 54 23.2 (J2000.0)
Follow up photometry and spectroscopy is urgently required.
Jeremy Shears,
Director, VSS
Charts and sequences of the transient are now available from the AAVSO website.
Posted image on my Members Page here.
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14224
The confirming spectrum was taken with an ALPY600 and 10 inch telescope
(Here it was clear earlier last night but the arrival of the alert in my in box coincided with that of the clouds)
Robin
Thanks for alerting about the ATel, Robin - pleased to see it's now officially a classical nova.
My image from just now (Nov 26.76) is on my members page here. It is just saturating in a 10s exposure but the unfiltered magnitude looks to be around 9.3.
You need a smaller telescope, Nick! I was using 5 sec exposures on the C11.
Good target for visual observers even with relatively small instruments.
Super to have another northerly nova.
Poor conditions last night with thickening fog and a bright Moon but managed to get an image and (very) low resolution spectrum. Shows the main features of a nova in its early stages...bright continuum with hydrogen emission lines. Results on my members page.
Regarding photometry...you could try a small aperture mask on you main telescope to cut the brightness. I sometimes use a 4 inch or even 2 inch on my 12inch scope for spectroscopy of bright stars for example.
Mike.
One might even try looking at it :-) Mag 9.5 last night (Nov 26th) and looks to be brightening further, so binocular territory once the Moon is out of the way.
Gary
Gary. I assume you're having to wear sunglasses when observing it?
Nearly :-) Although with all this cloud, I'm just hoping I get to see it when at it's brightest!
The AAVSO doesn't yet recognise the new designation (V1112 Per), although I suspect it will very soon. There are some bright comparison stars on the 3 degree (180') AAVSO chart that observers will need to use.
Gary
This is the first of two spectra I was able to record last night, 26th Nov. Thick fog eventually ended observations. The H Balmer and He I emission lines have prominent P Cygni dips on their blue edges caused by absorption in the material expanding towards us from the nova explosion.
David
I guess most of you know this but spectra are now starting to be posted on the ARAS web page for this nova. Well worth checking regularly as the nova develops.
Mike.
The nova is brightening, my estimate is mag 8.8 tonight
yes indeed. I had it at mag 8.9 at 18.30 this evening.
Whoa, that's bright. Unfortunately it is (still) really cloudy here.
An R~5500 LHIRES spectrum of Halpha/He I 6678 last night.
Lots of evolution over a day in spectra in BAA database
The interstellar line at 6613 is strong too. (I did a bit of Googling on that last night and it seems although it is thought to be molecular in origin, the species does not seem to be known. Does anyone know more about this )
A google search and a NASA paper "Taking apart the light" lists 661 nm as caused by Nitrogen. I dont know if this is a lab spectrum or "interstellar". Will they be the same - or not i ask myself ? (Just a thought)
When I first saw it I expected it to be atomic in origin because it looks so narrow (Think NaD or K 7699 interstellar lines) but I found no matches. Apparently it is probably (I should say possibly, nothing seems very clear from the literature I have found) formed by a high molecular weight PAH molecule but exactly which one is not clear. It is fascinating that something that is seen in so many spectra and has been known about for many decades is still a mystery
Cheers
Robin
This relatively modern paper sums it up (I did not realise before that some of these lines do not always track the dust or even each other)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.7006
The nova now has an official variable star designation: V1112 Persei
This nova is still bright. I had it about mag 8.5 last night.
Still bright - last evening I had the nova at V~8.3. Technically this is an easy binocular target, especially now the Moon is receding.
Here's a light curve of the Nova which Philip Jennings just showed at the BAA meeting.
Prepared yesterday (Dec 4). Latest obs early this AM put it at mag 8.9
I just updated the LC with data up to 2021 Jan 2. The last data points hint that might be beginning to fade a bit faster. Keep watching!
When making this plot, I was struck by the undulations in the LC at ~daily intervals. I've not looked into whether these are artefacts or genuine.
Here is what I have for this light curve, calibrated to G-band. It agrees quite well with that presented above, esp the transient brightening around 2459190. (Disregard the outlier around 2459200 due to overexposure.) I don't have the continuity to confirm the undulations of ~1day mentioned above. But I have seen oscillations with a variety of short periods. I wonder if the data used to create the combined BAA/AAVSO figure is directly available so that I could more closely compare?
Yes you can download all the data from both databases. There is a link to the VSS db under “observations” at the top right of this page.
There is an updated light curve on the VSS website: https://britastro.org/vss/
Your dara show just how active this nova is!
I see this has now faded to Vmag ~15 so time for perhaps a last low resolution spectrum. It shows a nebula type spectrum with strong forbidden emission lines, particularly [OIII] and a very weak almost undetectable continuum (The Y scale is relative to the continuum at 5500A and the signal/noise in the continuum is down in single figures). In fact I estimate 78% of the light in the V passband comes from just the [OIII] pair of lines at 4959/5007 A