Electronic Telegram No. 3071
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat@iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


NOVA IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD 2012 = TCP J04550000-7027150
     John Seach, Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia, reports his discovery of
a possible nova (mag 10.7) in the LMC on six images (limiting mag 11.5) taken
with a digital SLR camera (+ 50-mm f/1.0 lens) on Mar. 26.397 UT; he gave the
position as R.A. = 4h55m00s, Decl. = -70d27'15" (equinox 2000.0), adding that
nothing is visible at this position on a red Palomar Sky Survey image.  The
variable was designated TCP J04550000-7027150 when it was posted by Seach at
the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage.  Additional magnitudes for the new
variable:  Mar. 14.022, [12.5 (W. Liller, Vina del Mar, Chile; 20-cm Schmidt
camera + Tech Pan film, unfiltered); 27.011, 10.8 (Liller); 27.480, 10.5 (J.
Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia; 41-cm RCOS telescope + STL6K camera + infrared
filter; wavelength range > 700 nm; position R.A. = 4h54m56s.80, Decl. =
-70d26'56".6); 27.602, 12.0 (A. Pearce, Nedlands, Western Australia; visual).
Brimacombe has posted his image at the following website URL:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6875783010/.

     J. L. Prieto, Princeton University, reports that he obtained an optical
spectrum (range 370-930 nm) of TCP J04550000-7027150 on Mar. 27.0 UT using
the du Pont 2.5-m telescope (+ WFCCD) at Las Campanas Observatory.  The
spectrum shows strong and broad emission lines of the Balmer series, as well
as several N and He lines, making it a "N/He" nova.  The FWHM of H-alpha +
the [N II] feature is 5700 km/s.  The emission lines also show P-Cyg
absorption troughs, with the minimum at approximately -4700 km/s with respect
to the rest wavelength of the lines.  The spectrum looks similar to the
earliest spectrum of LMC 1990 No. 1 (Williams et al. 1991, Ap.J. 376, 721),
including a rising blue continuum below about 400.0 nm, but this new nova is
likely younger given the presence of strong P-Cyg absorption.


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 March 28                    (CBET 3071)              Daniel W. E. Green