------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2299 2007 Jan 14 16.16UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- V2362 CYGNI J. Rayner, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii et. al., report on IAUC 8788 that 0.8- to 5-micron spectroscopy of V2362 Cyg was obtained from 2006 Nov. 30 and Dec. 20 UT using the SPEX instrument on the 3-m reflector of the Infrared Telescope Facility. The Nov. 30 data were obtained at the visual peak of the nova's second outburst. That outburst rejuvenated its spectrum, erasing the higher excitation lines and most of the He I emission features -- and replacing them with strong lines of neutral carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen and singly ionized iron. There were no signs of dust local to the nova. In contrast, the Dec. 20 measurement revealed a spectrum completely transformed through the formation of hot dust. Beyond 2 microns, the spectrum is well fitted by a Planck function with the single temperature of 1410 K. In retrospect, it is clear that the precipitous drop in the visible light curve beginning in early December was due to dust formation, and that emission from this hot dust accounted for the unexpectedly bright fluxes between 3 and 13 microns measured on Dec. 12 and reported on IAUC 8785. The failure to recognize the dust at that time was a consequence of its high temperature, which placed the characteristic turnover of the Planck function outside of the measurement range. The underlying emission-line spectrum also changed significantly since Nov. 30, showing both a narrowing of the lines and an increase in excitation marked by the appearance of He II emission. David Boyd has reported to us that the significance of the faint star very close to the nova is growing during the present fade. He has decided to include the combined brightness of the two objects since, on nights of poor seeing, they may not be cleanly resolvable. The following include some re-measures on this basis: Date JD V dV V-Ic d(V-Ic) 2006 Dec 17.718 2454087.218 13.12 0.01 1.70 0.02 2006 Dec 19.735 2454089.235 13.25 0.02 1.79 0.03 2006 Dec 28.787 2454098.287 13.67 0.02 1.31 0.03 2007 Jan 10.751 2454111.251 13.71 0.01 0.54 0.03 2007 Jan 11.824 2454112.324 13.71 0.02 0.55 0.04 Guy M Hurst