• DOI:10.1086/301551
• Corpus ID: 119431018

Optical Imaging of Nova Shells and the Maximum Magnitude-Rate of Decline Relationship*

@article{Downes2000OpticalIO,
  title={Optical Imaging of Nova Shells and the Maximum Magnitude-Rate of Decline Relationship*},
  author={Ronald A. Downes and Hilmar W. Duerbeck},
  journal={The Astronomical Journal},
  year={2000},
  volume={120},
  pages={2007-2037}
}

• R. Downes, H. Duerbeck
• Published 30 June 2000
• Physics
• The Astronomical Journal

An optical imaging study of 30 recent novae has been undertaken using both ground-based and space-based observations. Resolved shells have been detected around nine objects in the ground-based data, while another four objects have shells detected by Hubble Space Telescope observations; for RW UMi, we fail to detect a shell that was observed 5 years earlier. Images in H?, and when appropriate [O III] ?5007, are shown, and finding charts for novae without shells are given if no published chart is available. Expansion parallaxes for all systems with shells are derived, and absolute magnitudes for a total of 28 objects are presented, along with a discussion of the maximum magnitude?rate of decline relation. We find that separate linear fits for fast and slow novae may be a better representation of the data than a single, global fit. At minimum, most novae have similar magnitudes as those of dwarf novae at maximum and nova-like stars.