PGIR20ekz: missed Galactic nova (gmag. 13 in July 2019) in Ophiuchus

Affiliation
Association Francaise des Observateurs d'Etoiles Variables (AFOEV)
Wed, 09/16/2020 - 07:06

Palomar Gattini-IR archival discovery of the bright NIR transient PGIR20ekz/AT 2019aafo: Spectroscopic confirmation of a highly reddened Galactic nova missed in 2019 (ATel #14014): http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14014

The optical peak (gmag. 13.3 – or brighter?) occurred around 2019 July 12; complete ASAS-SN Sky Patrol (Shappee et al. 2014ApJ...788...48S and Kochanek et al. 2017PASP..129j4502K) light curve and data: https://asas-sn.osu.edu/light_curves/c21d5eac-db22-44db-9161-97c23d5624…

ZTF light curve: https://lasair.roe.ac.uk/object/ZTF19abgnhzj/

*** Please check your archival images from July 2019. ***

Regards,
Patrick