Pre-outburst observations of Nova Del 2013 from Pan-STARRS 1

Abstract

Context. Nova Delphini 2013 was identified on the 14th of August 2013 and eventually rose to be a naked eye object. Aims. We sought to study the behaviour of the object in the run-up to outburst and to compare it to the pre-outburst photometric characteristics of other novae. Methods. We searched the Pan-STARRS 1 datastore to identify pre-outburst photometry of Nova Del 2013 and identified twenty-four observations in the 1.2 years before outburst. Results. The progenitor of Nova Delphini showed variability of a few tenths of a magnitude but did not brighten significantly in comparison with archival plate photometry. We also found that the object did not vary significantly on the approximately half hour timescale between pairs of Pan-STARRS 1 observations. © ESO, 2014.