------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3061 2015 Feb 15 17.10UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- PNV J18142514-2554343 K. Nishiyama has posted an announcement on the CBAT Transient Object Confirmation Page (TOCP) of the discovery of a bright transient in Sgr on 2015 February 12.852 at an unfiltered magnitude of 10.9 using a 105-mm f/4 camera lens with an SBIG STL6303E CCD camera. It is located at: RA 18h14m25.24s DDEC -25 54' 32.6" (2000). Nishiyama notes nothing is present on a previous image from 2015 February 02.887. The transient has been independently confirmed with two pre-discovery images: by H. Nishimura (Shizuoka-ken, Japan) at magnitude 11.2 on 2015 February 12.840, and by T. Kojima (Gunma-ken, Japan) at magnitude 10.5 on 2015 February 11.841. More information about the discovery and prediscovery images may be found at the following URL: http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/followups/J18142514-2554343.html NOVA SCO 2015 (= PNV J17032620-3504140) Further to TA E-Circular 3060, Frederick Walter, Stony Brook University reports on ATEL 7060 an observation with the Chiron Echelle Spectrograph on the SMARTS/CTIO 1.5m on 2015 February 13 at 09:38UT. This confirms that this object is a nova. H-alpha has an equivalent width of -14 nm and an FHWH ~ 2000 km/s. There are symmetrically-displaced emission features at about +/- 4500 km/s which resemble those seen in fast He-N novae. H-alpha and H-beta show P Cyg absorption features at about -4200,-3200, and -2300 km/s. The apparently rapid fading and bright possible near-IR counterpart suggest this is a system with an M giant donor, like V745 Sco or Nova Sco 2014. Stony Brook/Smarts Atlas of (mostly) Southern Novae: http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/SMARTS/NovaAtlas/ Guy M Hurst