------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 920 1995 Feb 04 13.54UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074 INTERNET: GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK or GMH at GXVG.AST.CAM.AC.UK ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOVA CIRCINI 1995 W. Liller, Instituto Isaac Newton, Vina del Mar, reports his discovery on a single PROBLICOM photograph (85-mm lens, orange filter, Kodak TP film) taken Jan. 27.328 UT of a stellar object of mv about 7.2 at the position R.A. = 14h44m58s, Decl. = -63o54'.0 (equinox 2000.0). Nothing brighter than mag 12.0 appears at this position on a film taken Jan. 12.336 UT. The sharpness of the image suggests that it is not a red variable. S. Benetti, European Southern Observatory (ESO); and E. Cappellaro, Padua Observatory, report that inspection of a fully- reduced CCD spectrum (range 390--900 nm, resolution 1.3 nm) obtained on Jan. 30.38 UT with the ESO New Technology Telescope (+ EMMI) confirms that this object is a nova. The spectrum is dominated by intense emission lines of hydrogen, Fe II, and O I (777.4 and 844.6 nm). The FWHM of H-alpha, H-beta, and H-gamma, corrected for the instrumental resolution, is about 1500 km/s. A. C. Gilmore, Mount John University Observatory, reports that N Cir 1995 shows nova-like colours in photometry obtained at Mt. John with the 0.6-m f/13 reflector (conditions were good but the region low): Jan. 29.449 UT, V = 7.91 +/- 0.02, U-B = -0.44 +/- 0.50, B-V = +0.38 +/- 0.02, V-R = +1.50 +/- 0.02, V-I = +1.71 +/- 0.02 (airmass 2.14). Comparison was with two stars in Cousins standard region F2 and nearby HR 5539. The true U-B is likely to be more negative than obtained here. IAUC 6130 Peter Nelson has e-mailed the following visual estimates: Jan. 28.526 UT, 7.4 (R. Stubbings, Victoria, Australia); 29.464, 8.1 (Peter Nelson, Victoria). Guy M Hurst