[Aavso-photometry] Nova Cygni 2008 Spectrum

[Matthew Beaky]

After the announcement of the discovery of the apparent nova in  
Cygnus (AAVSO Alert Notice #98), I waited through two cloudy nights  
before finally getting the chance to acquire a spectrum of N Cyg 08.   
I was able to get that spectrum yesterday morning, and it clearly  
indicates that N Cyg 08 is in fact a nova.  Hydrogen-alpha and  
hydrogen-beta lines are both in emission, and many emission lines of  
singly-ionized iron are also evident (making this an "Fe II" class  
nova, by the classification scheme of Williams (1992, A.J. 104,  
725)).  The full-width-half-maximum of the H-alpha emission line is  
790 km/s.  The spectra are posted on the web at http:// 
www2.truman.edu/~beaky/

For those interested in details, I used a 14-inch SCT with a SBIG  
Self-Guiding Spectrograph on its low-resolution setting (4 Angstroms/ 
pixel).  The nova was at visual magnitude ~ 9 at the time of  
observation, according to AAVSO "Quick Look" data.  Both the short- 
wavelength and long-wavelength spectra shown on the web site above  
are the sums of four 5-minute measurements (20 minutes total  
integration time).  The data are wavelength calibrated using a  
standard HgNe lamp, but not flux calibrated (though I did acquire  
spectra of Vega - a spectrophotometric standard star - and plan to do  
more post-processing soon).  Measurements were made at the Truman  
Observatory, near the campus of Truman State University in  
Kirksville, MO.

A check of the AAVSO Quick Look database this morning indicated that  
the nova brightened by about a magnitude overnight last night.   
Definitely an object worth monitoring!

Matt


********
Matthew M. Beaky
Associate Professor of Physics
Truman State University
beaky at truman dot edu