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Nova in Eridanus
This came in this morning. Something else to add to the observing lists?
This is an AstroAlert from Sky & Telescope.
November 29, 2009
by Roger W. Sinnott
An 8th-magnitude nova was discovered on November 25, 2009, by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan. The new star lies in northeastern Eridanus, 6.9 deg west-southwest of Rigel. In an e-mail sent late on the evening of November 28th, Sky & Telescope Senior Editor Alan MacRobert writes, "Just spotted the nova in my 10x50 binocs on their wooden shoulder frame. Barely visible through the bright moonlight at about mag 8.4."
The find was announced on CBET 2050, issued November 25th by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Itagaki was using an 0.21-meter (8.3-inch) patrol camera, but within 15 minutes he secured a confirming image with an 0.60-meter reflector. The nova lies at right ascension 4h 47.9m, declination -10deg 11' (equinox 2000.0).
Soon thereafter, Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero of Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, captured the nova with an 0.25-meter f/3.4 reflector operated by Global-Rent-A-Scope near Mayhill, New Mexico (see the image above). They found it to have an unfiltered CCD magnitude of 8.2 on November 26th near 8:40 Universal Time.
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