The recovery of the old nova RS Car (1895)

Abstract

Low-resolution spectra, taken at La Silla (ESO), identify the old nova RS Car (1895) as a ∼18 mag star located 7 arcsec southwest from the previous published position. This suggests a much brighter absolute magnitude of the old nova, Mv ∼ 5.4, than previously suspected. The spectrum reveals a continuum energy distribution typical of optically thick accretion discs and quite a high excitation state of the gas. The possible detection of the AlO λ4843 emission band is discussed.