-------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2052      2004 Oct 28 21.33UT
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------
POSSIBLE NOVA IN LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD
Bill Liller, Chile, has e-mailed a note of an apparent nova found in the 
Large Magellanic Cloud on a pair of photographs centred on 2004 October 
20.193UT. It seems might be a recurrence of a fast nova that occurred in 
1937, also known as YY Dor.  The position given in the GCVS for that 
nova is:
RA 0h 57m 03.3s, DEC -68 54' 58" (2000); Subramaniam & Anupama (2000) 
list it at end figures RA 04.44s, DEC 47.92" and give t3 19.9 days. 
According to the GCVS its maximum brightness (ptg) was 10.8.  On my 
're-discovery' photos it is approximately V = 11.0. U.T.

A follow-up observation by Bill yielded Oct 22.192UT, 11.3.

The photographs were taken with unfiltered Kodak TP film and a 0.2-m 
Schmidt camera.

Berto Monard, South Africa reports the object was observed with the CBA 
Pretoria instrumentation at the Bronberg Observatory on 2004 Oct21.88UT. 
A bright star is seen at position:
RA 05h 56m 41.84a DEC -68 54' 37.1" (2000)
Its brightness is estimated around 12.0V and about equally bright in B 
and R.

Andrew Pearce, Western Australia reports a visual magnitude estimate of 
12.0 for 2004 Oct 21.576UT.

H. E. Bond (STScI), F. Walter (Stony Brook University), J. Espinoza, D. 
Gonzalez, and A. Pasten (SMARTS Consortium, Cerro Tololo) report 
spectroscopic and CCD observations of the nova in the Large Magellanic 
Cloud made with the 1.5m and 1.3m telescopes at CTIO.

Spectra obtained on Oct 21.30, 22.33, 23.28, 24.31, and 25.44 
(resolution 0.43 nm, coverage 353-530 nm, except 0.16 and 387-454 on Oct 
23.28, and 0.43 and 600-780 on Oct 25.44) show strong, triple-peaked 
Balmer emission lines as well as He I and strong N III emission. The 
Balmer profiles consist of a sharp core redshifted by 0.4 nm (consistent 
with the radial velocity of the LMC) atop a broad double-horned 
pedestal. The two outer peaks forming the horned structure have 
velocities of about +/-2500 km/s. A blue-shifted wind absorption 
feature, whose velocity on Oct 21.30 was -3700 km/s, has gradually 
decreased in strength. On Oct 25.33, the H-alpha line had a FWZI of 9800 
km/s, with an equivalent width of 120 nm.

Astrometry of the CCD frames on the USNO-B1.0 system gives:
RA 05h 56m 42.42s, DEC -68 54' 34.8" (2000); the faint star mentioned in 
IAUC 8422 has USNO-B1.0 end figures 42s.40, 34".6, showing it to be the 
quiescent counterpart. Charts showing the location of Nova Doradus 1937 
(= YY Dor = HV 10642), published both by Hoffmeister (Mitt.Verand. 
Sterne 317) and in the Hodge-Wright Atlas of the LMC, show the 1937 
event to have occurred within a few arcseconds of the 2004 nova, making 
it likely that the nova is a recurrence of YY Dor.  YY Dor is thus only 
the second recurrent nova known in the LMC.

Guy M Hurst