Event: Nova in Ophiuchus
Discovered By: K. Itagaki (Teppo-Cho, Yamagata, Japan)
Discovery Date: 2009 August 16.515
Position: RA = 17h 38m 19.72s , Dec = -26d 44m 13.7s (+/- 0.6 arcsec from L. Elenin, Moscow, Russia, using the Tzec Maun 0.31-m Newtonian near Mayhill, NM)
Charts: Finder charts for this object may be plotted by entering "VSX J173819.7-264413" or "N OPH 2009" into VSP at the following URL:
http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vspNotes: See CBET 1910 (D.W.E. Green, editor) for full discovery information and CBET 1911 for spectroscopic confirmation. This Alert Notice updates AAVSO Special Notice #166. N Oph 2009 was first detected by Koichi Itagaki on an unfiltered CCD survey image taken on 2009 Aug 16.515, with the second, confirming observation by Itagaki yielding an unfiltered magnitude of 10.1 on 2009 Aug 16.526. The object was posted to the CBET Unconfirmed Observations page, and subsequently confirmed by several independent observers:
m(clear)=10.2, 2009 Aug 16.576, K. Kadota (Ageo, Japan); R=11.0, 2009 Aug 17.114 M. Nissinen & V.-P. Hentunen (Varkaus, Finland); V=11.90, 2009 Aug 17.134, S. Kiyota (Tsukuba, Japan); V=12.43, 2009 Aug 17.223, L. Elenin (Moscow, Russia); and m(clear)=11.1, 2009 Aug 17.428, K. Itagaki. See CBET 1910 for all reported photometry. K. Ayani et al report in CBET 1911 that the object exhibits very broad Balmer lines of hydrogen with FWHM of 8000 km/s. T. Kato noted in vsnet-alert 11399 that the large B-V (= +1.6) indicates a highly reddened
nova, and the object is in a very crowded field within the Milky Way.
Observations of this nova are strongly encouraged. Please submit data to the AAVSO using the name "N OPH 2009".
Congratulations to Koichi Itagaki for his discovery!
Clear skies, and good observing,
M. Templeton
AAVSO
