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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2732      2011 Apr 20 16.06UT
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
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T PYXIDIS OUTBURST
Further to TA E-Circular 2731, Elizabeth Waagen, AAVSO, reports on CBET 
2700 previous outbursts occurred in 1890, 1902, 1920, 1944 and 1966. 
Further estimates show a substantial brightening:

Apr. 5.510, 14.5 (Stubbings); 14.494, 11.4 (Stubbings); 14.501, 11.1 
(Andrew Pearce, W. Australia). Paul Camilleri (Hurstville, Australia) 
provides the following position for T Pyx measured from three images:
RA 09 h04m 41.52s DEC -32 22' 47.5" (2000)

An image using the 0.61-m Cass of Sierra Stars requested by Guy Hurst 
and obtained on April 17 at 03h54mUT showed the object had brightened to 
about magnitude 8.1V.

Nick James reports obtaining three 30s SSON images (V, Rc, Ic) on 2011 
Apr 17 at 04h07mUT. He has submitted a composite image with Ic, Rc, V 
combined as RGB. The V mag at the time was 7.92V. AAVSO reference 
photometry stars were used for the reduction.

Kenneth H. Nordsieck (University of Wisconsin-Madison), on behalf of the 
RSS Commissioning Team; Michael Shara (American Museum of Natural 
History), on behalf of the SALT consortium report on The Astronomer's 
Telegram 3289 spectroscopy of T Pyx was obtained on SALT with the Robert 
Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) on 2011 April 15 21:22-21:36UT, 1.6 days after 
its reported outburst and during the current RSS re-commissioning phase, 
which began on 9 April.

The spectra were taken with a 0.6 arcsec wide slit in two regions, 
535-630 nm (R = 8500; 3 x 30 s exposures) and 620-700 nm (R = 11200, 6 x 
30 s exposures). They are dominated by strong, broad emission lines of 
H-alpha, HeI and NII, some showing P Cyg profiles with radial velocities 
of the absorption component extending to -2400 km/s. The NII lines are 
typical of moderate density nova shells and the spectra as a whole are 
typical of the principal spectra of novae. The narrow interstellar NaD 
doublet is also present.

T Pyx SALT-RSS spectra: 
http://www.sal.wisc.edu/~khn/salt/Outgoing/RSSCommissioning2010/targets/T
Pyx/TPyx_RSS_IDd.pdf

Guy M Hurst