COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
         INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                      NUMBER 452


                                  Konkoly Observatory
                                  Budapest
                                  1970 July 18


           NOVA SAGITTARII 1969, BV 1262

      Nova Sagittarii 1969 was discovered on Bamberg
plates taken by I. Paterson with the 10 cm Tessar cameras
located at Mount John University Observatory, New Zealand.
Exposures of 60 minutes were all made with Gevaert 67A50
plates. The limiting magnitude of these plates is about 12.8.
The position of the nova is: RA=18h28m3, D=-32 39' (1950);
 II=1 52,bII=-10 42 (1950). The magnitudes were determined by
use of an iris photometer. The Argelander Step Method was used
in conjunction with the selected areas of Brun and Vehrenberg 
(1) and certain selected stars having published photo-
electric magnitudes (2). The results are given below, Because 
of the

        Date        Julian Date           Magnitude
                                 
1969   23 June      2440395.0208        below 12.8
        8 July          410.0049               7.1
       10 July          412.9826               6.9
       13 July          415.9459               7.3
        6 Aug.          439.9125               8.7
        7 Aug.          440.9160               8.8
       16 Aug.          449.8809               8.8
        5 Sept.         499.8507              10.7


apparent brightness of the nova the selected areas of Brun
and Vehrenberg could not be used and other comparison stars
had to be found for the first three dates on which the nova
could be seen. The published B magnitudes of HD 163667,
HD 170040, HD 170279 and HD 170320 were then used for these
three dates.
      Application of Arp's results for nova in M31(3) to
the rate of decline leads to M = -6,7 at maximum light and
an apparent distance of 5300 parsecs. Lying as it does near
the plane of the Galaxy, the nova may be appreciably
obscured. The assumption has been made that the nova reached
maximum light on JD 2440413. Below is the finding chart for
Nova Sagittarii 1969 made from the plate taken at time of
maximum brightness.


                     [FIGURE 1]


                          JOHN R. SIEVERS

                        Dr. Remeis Sternwarte,
                          Bamberg, Germany
                        University of Florida,
                         Gainesville, Florida




(1) Brun. A., and Vehrenberg, H. 1965, Atlas of Harvard-
    Groninger Selected Areas (Dusseldorf: Treugesell-Verlag). [BIBCODE 1965ahgs.book.....B ] 
(2) Blanco, V.M., Demers. S., and Fitzgerald, M.P. 1968, Photoelectric 
    Catalogue, Pub. of U.S. Naval Obs. 2nd series,
    Vol. XXI.
(3) Arp. H.C. 1956, A.J., 61,15. [BIBCODE 1956AJ.....61...15A ]