Recurrent Nova M31N 2008-12a: discovery and constraints of the 2016 eruption
K. Itagaki (Itagaki Astronomical Observatory), X. Gao (Xingming Observatory), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), M. Henze (CSIC-IEEC), A. W. Shafter (SDSU), S. C. Williams (Lancaster), S. Kafka (AAVSO), M. Kato (Keio University), for a larger collaboration
We report the discovery of the predicted 2016 eruption of the remarkable recurrent M 31 nova M31N 2008-12a (also see CBAT TOCP; see ATels #5607,#6527,#7964 for earlier detections as well as Darnley et al. 2014, 2015, 2016 and Henze et al. 2014, 2015a, 2015b for comprehensive multi-wavelength light curves of previous eruptions). The nova was clearly detected on 2016-12-12.4874 UT using five images (480s total exposure time) obtained with the 50cm f/6 telescope, with a BITRAN BN-52E(KAF-1001E) camera, at the Itagaki Astronomical Observatory. The unfiltered discovery magnitude is 18.2. The nova was also detected by the Half-Meter-Telescope (HMT) at the Xingming Observatory, a 508mm aperture, with a focal length of 2052mm using a QHY11 CCD camera. A number of observations over the two previous days from the Liverpool Telescope and LCO-1m in McDonald have enabled us to constrain the time of eruption:
optical,nova,transient