[vsnet-alert 24695] PGIR20ekz: missed Galactic nova (gmag. 13 in 2019 July) in Ophiuchus

Wed Sep 16 16:06:20 JST 2020

PGIR20ekz = ZTF19abgnhzj = AT 2019aafo  (NA)
(submitted as draft to VSX)

Palomar Gattini-IR archival discovery of the bright NIR transient PGIR20ekz/AT 2019aafo:
Spectroscopic confirmation of a highly reddened Galactic nova missed in 2019:
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14014

The optical peak (gmag. 13.3 -- or brighter?) occurred around 2019 July 12;
complete ASAS-SN Sky Patrol (Shappee et al. 2014ApJ...788...48S and Kochanek
et al. 2017PASP..129j4502K) light curve and data:
https://asas-sn.osu.edu/light_curves/c21d5eac-db22-44db-9161-97c23d5624e6

ZTF light curve:
https://lasair.roe.ac.uk/object/ZTF19abgnhzj/

Please check your archival images from July 2019.

Regards,
Patrick