NOVA SCORPII 2011 No. 2

Following the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible transient in Sco  (TOCP Designation: PNV J16364300-4132460) and AAVSO Special Notice #251, we performed some follow-up of this object  remotely through the 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD of "Faulkes Telescope South" (MPC Code - E10).

The two independent discoverers of this nova are: John Seach (Australia) and Yuji Nakamura (Japan).

On our images taken on September 07.50, 2011 we can confirm  the presence of an optical counterpart with filtered R-Bessel CCD magnitude 9.1 (USNO-B1.0 Catalogue reference stars) at coordinates:

R.A. = 16 36 44.29, Decl.= -41 32 37.7

(equinox 2000.0; USNO-B1.0 catalogue reference stars).

According to VIZIER there is a 15.08 R1 magnitude star at 0.060 arcseconds from the transient position (USNO-B1.0 0484-0459316).

Our BRV image (click on it for a bigger version):

Below you can see an animation showing a comparison between our confirmation image and the archive POSS2/UKSTU plate (R Filter - 1997). Click on the thumbnail for a bigger version: 

A. Arai, T. Kajikawa, C. Naka, Kyoto Sangyo University, reports on Cbet 2813 that they performed low-resolution optical spectroscopic observations (R about 580) of this object on Sept. 7.42 UT using the Araki telescope at Koyama Astronomical Observatory.  The spectrum exhibits broad Balmer emissions and Fe II multiplet emissions on a highly reddened continuum light.  The H-alpha emission line shows an asymmetric profile with FWZI about 6000 km/s. These features suggest that the object is an "Fe II"-type classical nova, highly reddened by the interstellar medium.

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and Giovanni Sostero