Vend91: very bright nova in M31

I've just found a quite bright (~18.2 mag) possible nova on my 4x90s images made with the 43cm CDK at Alnitak Remote Observatory, Nerpio, Spain on September 04.1512UT, using a Luminance filter.

Coordinates of Vend91: 00 42 50.3813 +41 18 58.764 (J2000.0)

The discovery of Vend91 has been reported to the TOCP website as PNV J00425038+4118587
and to the TNS server as AT 2026aaom.

Update on 11th September: Vend91 is still rising. By this morning it had brightened to approximately 15.2-15,4 magnitudes.

Update on 12th September. we now have three independent spectra, Vend91 is officially an FeII type extragalactic nova! 

"Diff1x" image with reference image subtracted.

Discovery image.

M31 with Vend91 on 10th September, using the 28 cm RASA at UDRO (iTelescope.net), Green channel (TG)

 

The central region of M31 cropped, Vend91 marked

Rencent image with te 43 cm CDK at UDRO, using Luminance filter

Update on September 12: We now have three independent spectra of Vend91, obtained by Robin Leadbeater, Claudio Balcon and Jiashuo Zhang. The spectra show strong Balmer emission lines (Hα, Hβ, Hγ and Hδ) together with numerous Fe II emission lines. Jiashuo Zhang measured the FWHM of Hα to be approximately 1800 km/s. Vend91 is now officially confirmed as an Fe II nova in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).

While Claudio Balcon submitted the formal classification to the TNS, Robin Leadbeater also reported strong H-alpha emission in his independent spectrum.


The discovery was made using the Alnitak Remote Observatories robotic telescope network, ARTA program.