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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2078      2005 Jan 24 18.44UT
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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NOVA IN MESSIER 31 (M31N 2004-11a)
As long ago as 2004 November 4 Mark Armstrong of Rolvenden, England, 
sent a copy to us of his e-mail to the Central Bureau in which he 
reported his discovery of a possible nova of magnitude 18 in Messier 31 
recorded on unfiltered CCD images of Nov 4.88UT secured for the UK 
Nova/Supernova Patrol.

He commented that nothing was found on his master image of 2003 August 8 
or a recent patrol image of 2004 October 5. There was some difficulty in 
obtaining a precise position but the offsets were estimated to be 13" 
west and 138" north

Martin Mobberley, Chelmsford responded to appeal from assistance with an 
e-mail of November 5. He reported:
I have attempted/guessed astrometry for Mark's suspect based on 
astrometry of an old image of mine with the cursor placed where Mark's 
suspect is. I have also checked it by reference to the star I have 
measured, and then offset from that in arc-seconds, allowing for the +41 
Dec Cos factor and assuming Mark's image does have north at top within a 
few degrees. Both estimates are in good agreement. The position is:
RA 00h 42m 42.8s     DEC +41 18' 31" (2000)
The resulting offsets were: 18" west; 143" north

Searches of the literature showed that a nova of 1966 = Nov 65 was close 
but not identical to the latest object.

This object was not announced on an IAUC, hence the delayed note on the 
TA Electronic Circulars. However we have subsequently discovered that 
the Central Bureau have decided to only announce the brighter novae of 
Messier 31 on IAUCs, around magnitude 15 or brighter. However such 
objects are now being listed on a CBAT WWW page at: 
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/CBAT_M31.html
The object is designated M31N 2004-11a on this page.

This webpage shows that K. Hornoch subsequently made an independent 
discovery on Nov 5.890 at magnitude 16.5. A further discovery was made 
by Federico Manzini, Italy during SAS Supernova Search with the SAS 
0.4-m telescope.

Alex Filippenko, et. al., University of California, Berkeley, report 
that inspection of CCD spectra (range 330-1000 nm), obtained on 2004 
Nov. 19 UT with the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observatory, revealed 
that this object was indeed a nova.

Congratulations to Mark on this nova discovery.

Guy M Hurst