THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 775 1993 Sept 17 19.23UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074 TELEX: 9312111261 Answerback: TA G TELECOM GOLD: 10074:MIK2885 GMH at UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.STARLINK.ASTROPHYSICS STARLINK: RLSAC::GMH GMH at UK.AC.CAM.ASTRONOMY.STARLINK STARLINK: CAVAD::GMH ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOVA IN M31 R. R. Treffers, A. V. Filippenko, B. Leibundgut, Y. Paik, L.F.M. Lee, and T. Matheson, University of California at Berkeley; and M. W. Richmond, Princeton University, report their discovery of a nova in M31 (R.A. = 0h40m00s, Decl. = +40 59'.7, equinox 1950.0). The object was found during the Leuschner Observatory Supernova Search, which uses an automated 0.76-m telescope equipped with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory CCD camera. It was detected in an image obtained on Aug. 27 UT, at R = 15.9 +/- 0.3, located about 10" east and 101" south of the nucleus (or 8" east and 14" south of a nearby star). Confirmation was made on Aug. 29 with the 0.50-m Berkeley Automatic Imaging Telescope, but the nova had already faded to R = 16.8 +/- 0.3. No object appears at this position to limits of R = 16.3, 16.2, and 15.9 in images obtained on Aug. 18, 21, and 24, respectively. A noisy spectrum (range 310-1000 nm) obtained on Sept. 12 with the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observatory reveals unusually broad H-alpha and H-beta emission lines (FWHM about 4400 km/s) superposed on a weak continuum. IAUC 5861 NOVA SAGITTARII 1993 Independent photographic discoveries of an apparent nova have been reported by Matsuo Sugano, Minami-Oda, Hyogo, Japan (via S.Nakano, Sumoto), and by William Liller, Vina del Mar, Chile. The object is located at R.A. = 18h09m.7, Decl. = -29o30' (equinox 1950.0), situated approximately midway between, and slightly to the north of, two stars of mag 10. Magnitude estimates: Aug. 27.02 UT, [11.5 (Liller; Tech Pan film, orange filter); 14.508, 9.0 (Sugano; Tri-X film); 16.043, 7.9 (Liller). IAUC 5862 V344 LYRAE Gary Poyner, Birmingham advises that independent detections of an outburst of this eruptive variable have been made as follows: 1993 Sept 10.888UT, mv=14.5 (Tony Vanmunster, Landan, Belgium) 10.916UT, mv=14.1 (Bill Worraker, Didcot, England)