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

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Hi Denis and all,

This has been a very interesting exercise and I was able to find the 
Nova in my Leonid photos due to saving pics with some lucky meteor captures.

I think now some professional observatories have posted images back to 
Nov 15 but maybe some amateur photos will also be helpful.

Here are my marked images and thanks for the alert.

http://www.heliotown.com/Nova_Eridani_2009_Ashcraft.html

Clear skies,
Thomas Ashcraft


On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Denis Denisenko <denis at hea.iki.rssi.ru> 
wrot
>> 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
>>