------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3137 2016 Jan 19 16.28UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- PNV J00430779+4122193 = Nova M31 2015-10b? George Carey, Bromsgrove, has found a variable object in Messier 31 on 2016 Jan 14. The coordinates are RA 00 43 15.38 DEC 41 20 16.8, mag 17.8 CBAT have a suspect already labelled PNV J00430779+4122193 but declination varies by 2'? David Bishop on WWW already has a suspect he has labelled as: Nova M31 2015-10b. Discovered by the Liverpool telescope and imaged by Kamil Hornoch. An image of 2016 Jan 15 was secured by Nick James Subsequently an image of 2015 Nov 27 was found in George's archive showing an image near the limit. Nick James relays The Calar Alto Microlensing survey has over 23000 variable suspects but none with the same coordinates. On ATEL 8281 S Williams obtained a spectrum of the nova candidate M31N 2015-10b (ATEL 8218) with the SPRAT spectrograph on the 2m Liverpool Telescope on 2015 October 27.9 UT (one day after discovery). The spectrum shows narrow Balmer emission and Fe II lines are also tentatively detected in emission. This spectrum is consistent with M31N 2015-10b being a classical nova eruption in M31. The emission lines suggest this may be a member of the Fe II spectroscopic class (Williams 1992). Editor: We would welcome further images and measured magnitudes of more recent activity of this nova. Guy M Hurst