Nova in M31 2000 3

This page is devoted to information on Nova M31 2000 3 in M31 (= NGC 224) Basic information on this Nova, including the last reported brightness, on this and other Novae can be found on the main page. Information on the original web pages for many of these images can be found on the Supernova links web page.

From Giovanni Sostero (Remanzacco Observatory): at the end we have found a good Nova candidate in the course of our monitoring program in M31. We have spotted it in four different frames taken on October 22 at unfiletered CCD magnitude 17.6 (liming magnitude almost 18.5). It was not present on other frames of the same region taken with the same instrumentation on September 1, 7, 8, 9 and 22. Nor it was present on the POSS (second generation) B & R plates. Due to bad weather, we were prevented to obtain other frames until this night, when we spotted it again in six different frames, but at fainther magnitude (estimated to be 18.1). Its position is: R.A. = 00h42m 57.2s, Decl. = +41d07'18" (equinox 2000.0).

We have contacted dr. W. Li for a confirmatory image, but unfortunately he told us that the weather is bad at the Lick Observatory, so he couldn't provide us any additional confirmation of the object. Considering the large amount of reference images we have, we decided to send anyway an alert message to the CBAT.

NOTE: on these images South is up and East is right in the Remanzacco Observatory images. A color DSS reference can be found here

Observer	Date	Mag	Filter	Comments
Remanzacco Observatory image	9/7/00		C	No nova present
Remanzacco Observatory image	9/8/00		C	No nova present
Remanzacco Observatory image	10/22/00	17.6	C	Discovery
Rezman Observatory image	10/23.96500	18.1	C
Fred Ewalt image	10/24/00	> 18	C
Remanzacco Observatory image	10/28/00		C
Discovery and DSS blink image	10/28/00		C	Made by Odd Trondal
Remanzacco Observatory image	11/1.84/00	18.7	C
Visnjan Observatory image	11/1.86/00		C
G. Sostero image	11/3/00		C
Rafael Ferrando image	11/04.866/00	> 19	C
Visnjan Observatory image	11/5.8/00	< 19	C

Light curves and Spectra
• Remanzacco Observatory Light curve This is a preliminary lightcurve of Nova M31-3 from the images we collected and those provided by others. It seems that the peaking magnitude was reached on October 23 or 24, at absolute magnitude -7 or something like that. The declining rate (0.2 magn/day) seems to indicate that this object could belong to the subcalss of "fast Novae".