Electronic Telegram No. 1291
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


NOVA CYGNI 2008
     S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports the discovery by Hiroshi Kaneda
(Minami-ku, Sapporo, Japan) of an apparent nova (mag 8.2 +/- 0.3) on nine 4-s
unfiltered CCD frames (limting mag 10.7) taken on Mar. 7.801 UT using a
digital camera (+ 105-mm f/2.5 telephoto lens), giving the position of the
variable as R.A. = 19h58m33s.4, Decl. = +29o52'04" (equinox 2000.0;
uncertainty estimated to be +/- 15").  Kaneda notes that nothing is visible
at this position on his patrol frames taken on 2007 Oct. 5, (limiting mag
10.5), 2008 Jan. 1 (limiting mag 10.7), and Feb. 18 (limiting mag 10.5);
also, nothing is present on the Digitized Sky Survey within 20" of this
position to mag 13.0.
     Following posting of the above report on the Central Bureau's
unconfirmed-objects webpage, numerous additional claims of independent
discovery have been received.  The first was from Zhang-wei Jin and Xing Gao,
using a Canon EOS 350D camera (+ 7-cm-aperture, 200-mm-f.l. f/2.8 telephoto
lens) at Xingming Observatory, Mt. Nanshan, China, as part of their nova
survey with additional details of their report also supplied by J. Beize of
Beijing; their several discovery images (limiting mag about 15.0) were taken
around Mar. 7.881 UT, showing the apparent nova at mag 8.1, and giving the
position initially as R.A. = 19h58m33s, Decl. = +29o52'05" (this was later
revised to position end figures 33s.57, 11".6, as measured by Beize).
Nothing was visible on their survey images taken on Mar. 2 and 5, and their
images are posted at website URL http://www.xjltp.com/XM08AD.htm.
     After the Xingming report above was also posted to the CBAT unconfirmed-
objects webpage, H. Yamaoka (Kyushu University) forwarded numerous reports
of additional apparent independent CCD discoveries from Japanese observers,
with the following magnitudes provided (and all giving approximate positions
that agree with the above positions):  Feb. 24.852 UT, [12 (Yuji Nakamura,
Kameyama, Mie, Japan, 135-mm-f.l. camera lens); Mar. 5.830, [10.5 (Minoru
Yamamoto, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan, digital camera + 85-mm-f.l. lens); Mar.
7.826, 8.0 (Yamamoto); Mar. 7.830, 8.6 (Nakamura); Mar. 7.837, 7.4 (Katsumi
Haseda, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan, Canon EOS digital camera + 120-mm-f.l.
lens); Mar. 7.871, 9.2 (Tetsuo Kudo, Goshi, Kumamoto, Japan, Canon EOS
digital camera + 40-mm-f.l. lens).


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 March 8                     (CBET 1291)              Daniel W. E. Green