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(cba:news) V1674 Her: nova of the century (Joe Patterson) [2021-08-04T18:20:52Z]


Hi CBAers,

Novae of the century were plentiful in tThe 20th century. There was GK Per in 1901, V603 Aql in 1918, DQ Her in 1934, V1500 Cyg in 1975, and V1974 Cyg in 1992. At least Starrfield and Shore, who so named the 1992 nova (see Sky and Telescope article), had the patience to wait until late in the century to award that designation.

But all five stars continue to reward faithful study and shed new light on these stellar explosions. That's remarkable; most novae fade from headlines as soon as the next one appears - and fade from research papers nearly as fast..

The 21st century has seen no stunning new nova discovery. Maybe that's because they're more plentiful; with fancier and more sensitive toys, astronomers may get distracted by the next nova, and never get around to close study of last month's surprise. (Except for Ulisse Munari; *nothing* distracts him.) But this year's applicant for century royalty - v1674 Herculis - has great credentials. Still 7 mag above quiescence, when the big luminous shell still dominates, it is displaying periodic signals at 8 minutes and 3.2 hours.

We've never seen this before in a still-bright nova (and neither has anyone else). Has anyone been looking properly? Well, maybe... and maybe not. But let's not repeat past negligence. It's a good season for Hercules; and with a dec of +14, could be a good target for Aussies/Kiwis/Asians as well. We'd sure love to go around the world on this guy!

Length of run is a big issue. With a V filter, differential extinction is small, and you could perhaps stretch it to 2.5 airmasses. But then you lose signal-to-noise (14.5 mag now and fading). Otherwise,enforce a limit of 2.0 airmasses... and we'll rely on longitude spread to get the period structure precisely right. (Fainter than 16, this is by far the better strategy.)

joe


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