The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams reports that Andrew Pearce in Western Australia (Nedlands) discovered a transient in Scorpius on 2024-02-08, at a visual magnitude of 7.8, and 7.4 on 2024-02-09.
A CCD observation by Andrew a little over half a day later gave a visual (Johnson V) magnitude of 7.2.
It was also independently discovered by Y. Sakurai in Japan (Mito), estimated at magnitude 7.1 on 2024-02-09, and found on images by R. H. McNaught, New South Wales (Coonabarabran).
The transient is designated PNV J17261813-3809354 and it’s position on the sky corresponds to Gaia DR3 5974053153713533184, a 19.4 visual magnitude star.
From nothing observed in the field on 2024-02-07 (Andrew’s DSLR), it rose by more than 10 magnitudes within a day.
The Astronomer’s Telegram has classified the object as a nova near visible peak, however the behaviour of these objects can sometimes be surprising.
The following Stellarium fields show the transient’s approximate position (click to enlarge) at about 3:30am Australian Eastern Daylight Time.
A 10 degree field finder chart from AAVSO is shown below:
The chart will need to be rotated by 90 degrees anti-clockwise to match the sky shown.
I observed the field with 10×50 binoculars this morning from around 5am to 6am Adelaide time (ACDT).
There was a significant amount of cloud around the area that made observing the nova difficult. I proceeded to take DSLR images before sunrise and there is some apparently useful data there. I will do the photometry later today and post an update.
Some updates are also starting to flow into AAVSO and Variable Stars South forums.
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