AY Lac

[Gary Poyner]

This object (catalogued as a NR or UGWZ – Recurrent Nova or Dwarf Nova of the WZ Sge type) has been detected in outburst by ASAS-SN on Oct 08.283 at 13.83g. Only two previous outbursts have been recorded, 1927 & 1966.   

It’s position is RA 22 22 22.10   Dec +50 23 40.0

Photometry, astrometry and spectroscopy are urgently required.   Please report your observations to BAAVSS and/or AAVSO.

A finder chart can be obtained from the AAVSO Chart Plotter here

Gary

[Jeremy Shears]

Just observed:

AY Lac Oct 8.778 13.83C

[David Swan]

An image of the nova. Lots of stars around here!

Image details: Centre RA 22h 22m 32.3s,  Dec +50° 23′ 42.5″; Pos Angle +316° 35.2′; FL 196.3 mm; 2.52″/Pixel

[Robin Leadbeater]

ALPY 600 ~12A resolution. A blue continuum with weak Balmer absorption

[Nick James]

Indeed. A very starry field. I get a position of 22 22 22.17 +50 23 40.0 (J2000) using Gaia DR2.

[John O’Neill]

Gary, thanks for the heads up. I made it (visually) mag 13.9 on 2020 Oct 9 at 01:38 UT. I used the AAVSO chart.  Yes, it is a rich field, but easy enough.

John

[Gary Poyner]

Good to see reports of AY Lac coming in, and that the outburst coincided with clear sky for some people – me included.   I had AY Lac varying between 13.8-14.1 visually over several hours, but after spending decades looking at empty space it was a thrill just to see it.

Gary

[Mike Harlow]

Hi Gary,

Interesting stuff.  Any references to the previous outbursts available online?  Curious to known if the 1927 and 1966 outbursts evolved in the same way or were they significantly different from each other?

Thanks,

Mike.

[Gary Poyner]

Hi Mike,

Not a lot available, but this is interesting…

https://konkoly.hu/pub/ibvs/5401/5441.pdf

Gary

[Jeremy Shears]

A little fainter last night: Oct 9.852 at ~14.17C

[Grant Privett]

I did my first variable star measurement in 30 years.

Result: 20201009 01:27 Mag=14.1 (first crude estimate using AAVSO) while AA7 says 13.94. What does everyone else use?

Refined result using Gaia DR2 plus another from the following night… 

20201009 01:27 2459131.60262 14.05

20201010 00:21 2459132.51466 14.30

[Robin Leadbeater]

A short clear spell tonight. Not long enough to get a spectrum but off the spectrograph guider it looked about a magnitude fainter than on 8th  

[Gary Poyner]

I had it 15.0 visual this morning (13th).  

I was hoping that it might do more (we have waited rather a long time to see it after all!).   I don’t see any evidence for superhump like features in the light curve at all.   Perhaps it might surprise us with a second outburtst once it’s faded further.

One of the earlier interpretations of it’s class is Recurrent Nova.   Maybe?

Gary

[Robin Leadbeater]

Interesting. The spectrum seems consistent with a dwarf nova outburst. I managed to salvage a couple of short exposure spectra from aborted runs on the 10th and 12th. They are very noisy though so the only significant feature is the hot continuum shape.

Robin

 

[Robin Leadbeater]

Another spectrum on a better night (2hr 20min exposure at mag ~15.5 The limit at this resolution).   Not much happening compared with a week ago

https://britastro.org/specdb/data_graph.php?obs_id=8021%2C8002&multi=yes

Robin

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