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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1733      2002 Jan 13 10.14UT
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             GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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OUTBURST OF IM NOR? (Q2002/003)
Bill Liller, Vina del Mar, Chile, advises us that he has recorded a
star on five photographs obtained between 2002 Jan 10.3432UT-
10.3595UT at red magnitude 8.3 which may be an outburst of an old
nova designated IM Normae. The position of the recorded star is:
RA 15h 39.5m DEC -52 19' (2000).

Downes and Shara, in the second edition of their catalogue and
atlas of cataclysmics (PASP Vol 109 No 734, 1997 April), reported a
position for IM Normae of:

RA 15h 39m 26.20s DEC -52 19' 21.3" (2000) 

He subsequently also detected it on earlier photographs (all with
85mm f/1.4 lens and Tech Pan film) of Jan. 3.3479UT and 3.3493UT.
However it was not present to a limit of magnitude 11.5 on 2001
Oct. 13.

He comments that IM Nor was originally discovered by I.E.Woods at
magnitude 9 on a blue-sensitive plate taken on 1920 July 7.
J.L.Elliot and W.Liller later suggested that it was an X-ray source
(ApJ 175, L69, 1972), and determined its light curve from old
Harvard plates. No other outbursts were evidently found and
apparently no spectroscopic confirmation of the object as a nova
was ever obtained.

Guy M Hurst