COMMISSION 27 OF THE I.A.U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                     NUMBER 437

                                Konkoly Observatory
                                Budapest
                                1970 May 11


       A NOVA IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

      Nova Mensae 1970 was discovered on an objective prism 
plate taken by Sr. Arturo Gomez with the Curtis
Schmidt-type telescope of the University currently on loan
to the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Obseratory in Chile. The
discovery plate was taken on the night of March 8 (U.T.),
1970, and the most recent plate of the area with which to
compare the nova plate was taken on February 8, 1970; the
earlier plate shows nothing in the position of the nova
down to the limiting magnitude of about m_pg 13.8. Both the
discovery and comparison plates are of type IIa-O exposed
one hour through a GG 5 filter; the spectral region covered
is approximately lambda lambda 4500-5000 A with a dispersion of about
400 A/mm at 4800 A. Measured relative to the 1975 coordinate
grid on the Uppsala-Mt.Stromolo Atlas, the approximate position 
is: RA = 5h 33m.5, D = -70deg 36'. On the Hodge-Wright
Atlas of the LMC it is about 1.2 cm north and 0.3 cm west
of H.V. 5934 and is fainter than their plate limit of m_pg
17.5. The chart shows the position and brightness as drawn
from the discovery plate; no direct plate is available. The
nova is about Odeg.5 south of the center of the Bar and Odeg.5
southwest of Nova Doradus 1948.

      The spectrum on the discovery plate appears as
follows: H is very bright, flat-topped, and broad and
faint, broad Fe II emission at lambda4924 and lambda5018 is present.
No other emission or absorption feature are evident in
this spectral range at our dispersion. According to the
spectral criteria given by McLaughlin (1), our discovery
plate seems to have been obtained during the stage of
"principal" spectrum probably within one magnitude and
several days of maximum. The magnitude of the nova at discovery 
is about m_pg 12 as estimated from comparison with
several OB stars near the nova having magnitudes assigned
by Sanduleak (2). With a distance modulus of 18.7 for the
LMC and maximum apparent magnitude of 11, the nova would
have attained M_max about -7.7 which is in good agreement
with the mean probable absolute magnitude (-7.6) of the
nine Magellanic Cloud novae discussed by Henize, Hoffleit
and Nail (3). Discounting Nova Hydri 1935 which may have
been a supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 1511, there are
now six novae known in the LCM and four in the SMC. The
ratio of novae in the two Clouds (3:2) compares well with
that of planetary  nebulae  as given by Westerlund (4)
although the ratio of masses is about four to one. Thus,
the frequency  of both novae and planetary nebulea per unit
mass is higher by a factor of about three in the SMC than
in the LMC. 
    I wish to express thanks to Dr. N.Sanduleak of the
Warner and Swasey Observatory for making the finding chart
and to Drs.Sanduleak, C.B.Stephenson, and A.P.Cowley for
helpful discussions. The support of the National Science
Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.


			[FIGURE 1]

                        D. J. MacCONNELL
                        Department of Astronomy
                        University of Michigan
                        Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
			 
(1) McLaughlin, D.B.  1960,  Stellar Atmospheres, ed. J.L.
    Greenstein (Chicago: The University of Chicago  Press),
    chap. 17.
(2) Sanduleak, N.1969, Cerro Tololo Contr. No.89. [BIBCODE 1970CoTol..89.....S ]
(3) Henize,K.G., Hoffleit, D., and Nail,V. McK.1954, Proc.
    U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci. 40, 365; Harvard Repr. No.387. [BIBCODE 1954PNAS...40..365H ]
(4) Westerlund,B.E.1988, I.A.U. Symp. No. 34, 23. [BIBCODE 1968IAUS...34...23W ]