COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                    Number 1340

                                  Konkoly Observatory
                                  Budapest
                                  1977 September 19




  THE BELATED DISCOVERY OF NOVA Sgr 1968 AND NOVA Oph 1969




    Recent reexamination and intercomparison of several 
objective-prism plates taken with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at
Cerro Tololo, Chile has revealed two previously undetected novae.
The plates are Kodak IIa-F behind an RG 1 filter and cover the
spectral region lambdalambda6000-6800 at a dispersion of 420 Angstrom/mm at Halpha;
they are widened to 1/3 mm during the 30-minute exposure and
have a limiting red magnitude of about 12.0 for the continuum
of a blue star.
    Nova Sgr 1968 - position: 17h59m18.87s, -28d45'23.8" (1950).
The two prism plates of this object were taken on 1968 May 17
and July 3, and both show broad emission at Halpha. The total width
of Halpha gives a velocity spread of 2900 km/s on the first plate
and 2300 km/s on the second. The May 17 plate also shows a faint,
reddened continuum, estimated to be of red magnitude 11.0, on
which are superposed weak emission bands tentatively assigned
to lambda6300 and lambda6364 of [OI] and to lambda6474 of [FeII]; this latter
would indicate that it is probably a slow nova. The July 3 plate
is somewhat deeper than the first but shows no continuum nor
features other than Halpha. From the limited spectral information
available, it can only be said that the first plate was taken
during the Orion or early nebular stage and the second plate
was taken during the later nebular stage. There is also available 
a 5-minute, direct visual plate taken 1971 April 3 which
shows no image at the nova position brighter than V = 16.3.
   Nova Oph 1969 - position: 17h21m12.14s, - 24d34'08.0" (1950).
Two prism plates, taken 1969 June 21 and 1974 Aug. 8, are available 
at this position, but only the first shows evidence of the
nova. On this plate very broad Halpha emission with a symmetrically-
placed core is seen superposed on a continuum of approximate red
magnitude 10.8. The spectrum shows no forbidden lines nor absorption 
features but does have narrow, weak HeI emission at lambda6678 
indicating that it was in the principal emission stage at this time.
The total width of Halpha corresponds to a velocity spread of 5000km/s,
   Dr. V. Sanduleak, Warner and Swasey Observatory, indicates
in a private communication that there is an objective-prism plate
on each of these fields at that observatory. The field of the
Sagittarius object was taken 1967 July 5 with the Curtis telescope 
on 103a-F emulsion at a dispersion of about 1000 Angstrom/mm at
Halpha; he finds no object in the nova position brighter than limiting 
red magnitude 13.5. The Ophiuchus field was covered on a
IIa-O plate (dispersion about 1400 Angstrom/mm at Hgamma) taken with the
Burrell Schmidt telescope on 1969 July 14, three weeks after the
discovery plate. Dr. Sanduleak reports no trace of Nova Oph 1969
down to limiting photographic magnitude 14.
   The author expresses gratitude to N. Sanduleak for his 
communication and to J. Stock for his help in the position 
determinations.





                                   D. JACK MacCONNELL
                                   CIDA
                                   Apartado 264, Merida
                                   Venezuela