(meteorobs) Important! Check your Leonids images of Nov. 15-18

[Mike Hankey]

Denis,

I have a few pictures of Orion from Nov 17th.

This is the best one of the batch due to clouds:

http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/orion-20091117.jpg

If this is the right area / has any value to you I can send you the RAW image.

Please lmk if this is any help.

Thanks,

Mike

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Denis Denisenko <denis at hea.iki.rssi.ru> wrote:
> Dear meteor observers!
>
> Possible Nova in Eridanus was discovered by famous Japanese astronomer
> Koichi Itagaki on Nov. 25.536 UT (CBET 2050) at magnitude 8.1.  It was
> then retrospectively found on ASAS images dated by as early as Nov.
> 19.241 UT being yet brighter at 7.3 mag (AAVSO Special Notice #181).
> The star has 15th magnitude at quiescence.
>
> No images of possible Nova Eridani are available between Nov. 10.236 UT
> when it was fainter than 14.0 and Nov. 19.241 UT.  Looks like the real
> maximum has been missed!  Since the spectrum of the star in outburst
> shows bright Balmer emission lines with expansion velocity of 3400-3600
> km/s, this object is likely a classical Nova rather than a cataclysmic
> variable of WZ Sge type.  This means that the real outburst amplitude
> should have been 13-14 magnitudes rather than the observed 7.5, and some
> time between Nov. 10th and 19th it *could* have been as bright as mag
> 1-2!!!  But nobody knows it for sure.  Not yet!
>
> Here is where your help is needed.  Please check your photos (and
> probably even videos) from the nights of 2009 Leonid shower activity
> containing Orion and its surrounding constellations.  The Nova is
> located near the Orion-Eridanus border, about 7 deg West and 2 deg South
> of Regulus.  Precise coordinates of the star are:
>
> R.A. = 04h47m54.2s, Decl. = -10d10'43" (J2000.0)
>
> The position of star is shown with blue dashes on the following chart
> (stars to 6.5m are shown):
>
> http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/~denis/NovaEri2009Nov18.gif
>
> If you find the images taken any time between Nov. 10 and Nov. 19
> covering the area of interest, please check them for the presence of the
> Nova Eridani 2009, or send them directly to me for the analysis and
> photometry via E-mail address below in my signature.  Also, feel free to
> send this message to other mailing list and circulate it among your
> fellow astronomers.  This is really a rare coincidence that many images
> of the sky were taken just in time during the Nova outburst because of
> the Leonid meteors activity, and reconstructing the light curve of this
> variable star would be very important.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Denis
> --
> Denis V. Denisenko
> Space Research Institute
> Profsoyuznaya st., 84/32
> 117997, Moscow, Russia
> denis at hea.iki.rssi.ru
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