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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3062      2015 Feb 19 19.28UT
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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NOVA SGR 2015 (=PNV J18142514-2554343)
Further to TA E-Circular 3061, Frederick Walter, Stony Brook University
reports on ATEL 7101 an observation with the Chiron Echelle Spectrograph on
the SMARTS/CTIO 1.5m, which together with SMARTS 1.3m Andicam BVRIJHK
photometry indicate that this object is a classical Fe II nova near maximum.


Photometry on the nights of 2015 February 13-17 shows that the brightness
peaked in B (10.4) and V (9.7) between MJD 57069 and 57070, in R (9.0) and I
(8.8) about MJD 57071.0, and continues to increase through MJD 57071.9 at
JHK.  

The R=28000 spectrum, obtained 2015 February 16 at 09:40UT, shows narrow P
Cyg lines of Fe II, N I, N II, O I, and H-alpha and H-beta. Assuming
negligible intrinsic radial velocity, the peak absorption opacity is about
-100 km/s, with maximum wind velocities near -500 km/s. At this time
(pre-maximum), the H-alpha emission equivalent width was -0.7nm, with a FWHM
of 300 km/s. 

Some plots are available on SMARTS nova atlas web page (link below). 

Stony Brook/Smarts Atlas of (mostly) Southern Novae:
http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/SMARTS/NovaAtlas/

According to the AAVSO Alert 509 the object was independently discovered by:
Hideo Nishimura (Shizuoka-ken, Japan)
Koichi Nishiyama (Kurume, Japan)
Fujio Kabashima (Miyaki, Japan)

ASASSN-15db in NGC 5996
T. W. S. Holoien, Ohio State et. al. relay on ATEL 7078 that during the
ongoing All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN or "Assassin"),
using data from the quadruple 14-cm "Brutus" telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii,
they discovered a new transient source, most likely a supernova, in the
galaxy NGC 5996: 

Object       RA (J2000)     DEC (J2000)  Disc. UT Date   Disc. V 
ASASSN-15db  15:46:58.69   +17:53:02.55  2015-02-15.58    15.2 
It was also detected in images obtained on 2015 Feb 08.55 (V~16.7).
They did not detect (V>17.0) the object in images taken on UT 2015 Feb 07.59
and before. An image obtained on UT 2015 Feb 15.70 with the LCOGT 1-m
robotic telescope at Siding Springs Observatory confirms the discovery of
the transient.

Images at:
www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~assassin/followup/asassn-15db.png
show the archival SDSS g-band image of the host (left) and the LCOGT
confirmation image (right). The red lines indicate the position of the
transient in the LCOGT image. 

The position of ASASSN-15db is approximately 0.5" South and 2.8" West from
the centre of the galaxy NGC 5996 (z=0.010998, d=47.1 Mpc, via NED), giving
an absolute V-band magnitude of approximately -18.3 (m-M=33.37, A_V=0.093).

Guy M Hurst