  Nova shells can provide us with important information on their distance,
their interactions with the circumstellar and interstellar media, and the
evolution in morphology of the ejecta. We have obtained narrow-band images of a
sample of five nova shells, namely DQHer, FHSer, TAur, V476Cyg, and V533Her,
with ages in the range from 50 to 130 years. These images have been compared
with suitable available archival images to derive their angular expansion
rates. We find that all the nova shells in our sample are still in the free
expansion phase, which can be expected, as the mass of the ejecta is 7-45 times
larger than the mass of the swept-up circumstellar medium. The nova shells will
keep expanding freely for time periods up to a few hundred years, reducing
their time dispersal into the interstellar medium.

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics