------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2085 2005 Feb 12 14.15UT 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 CYGNUS S. Nakano, Japan, has reported on IAU Circular 8483 the discovery by Hideo Nishimura (Kakegawa, Shizuoka-ken, Japan) of a possible magnitude 9.7 nova on two films taken on 2005 Feb. 10.85 UT using a Pentax 6x7 camera (+ 200-mm f/4.0 lens + Kodak T-Max 400 film; limiting mag 11). Nishimura provided the following semi-accurate position: RA 20h 09m 19s, DEC +39 48' 49" (2000) There was evidently nothing visible at this position on his patrol films back to 2001 Oct. 21 (including one taken on 2005 Feb. 6 with limiting mag 11). S. Wakuda (Yuto, Shizuoka-ken, Japan) provides position end figures of: RA 19.05s; DEC 52.9" from CCD images taken on Feb. 11.841 (the new object being at mag 9.3). K.Kadota (Ageo, Saitama-ken, Japan) provides position end figures RA 19.09s,DEC 52.2" from an unfiltered image taken with a 0.25-m f/5.0 reflector on Feb. 11.761 (the object at mag 8.9). The AAVSO request using the validation code 2005+39 when reporting observations. Could I please ask observers to check any films or digital images secured this year, especially after 2005 Feb 6, to see if the object was recorded. If so please e-mail copies of the images to the editor for analysis. Guy M Hurst