Observation by Robin Leadbeater: Novae Cas and Per 2020 H alpha line at ...

It is not often that two novae are bright enough to record medium resolution (R=5500) spectra on the same night. Here Nova Per 2020, a few days old near maximum at V mag ~8.5 is compared with Nova Cas 2020, 4 months old but still bright at V mag ~12.5, having undergone a series of rebrightennings.

Despite being 4 magnitudes fainter in V, the H alpha emission relative to the continuum is much stronger in nova Cas compared with nova Per and stands out well against the faint continuum in the spectrum images.

The H alpha line profiles are plotted in terms of radial velocity which maps the line of sight velocity of different parts of the ejecta.

Files associated with this observation

Nova_Cas_Per_20201130.png (97.7 kB)

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Peter Mulligan, Gary Poyner, Jeremy Shears, Andrew Smith, Graham Winstanley, Mike Harlow, David Basey, Nick Hewitt, Andy Wilson, Paul Leyland

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