COMMISSION 27 OF THE I. A. U.
        INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                    Number 1393

                                    Konkoly Observatory
                                    Budapest         
                                    1978 March 10



         A COMMENT ON THE SLOW NOVA IN SCORPIUS


    An object, supposed to be a slow nova, was reported by
Sanduleak, Stephenson and MacConnell in IBVS No. 1376. We looked
for the star in our plate files and found two plates covering
the region of the nova, both taken with the Uppsala Southern
Schmidt telescope at Mt Stromlo Observatory. One is a blue prism
plate, taken July 18, 1966. This plate does not show any emission
from the star. The other is a red direct plate, taken August 27,
1968. This plate is in Figure 1 compared with a copy from the red
chart of Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS), kindly submitted
to us by Dr. Sanduleak. It is from this figure clear, that the
star was several magnitudes brighter in 1968 than when the POSS
plate was taken. If it really is a nova, it is then likely that
the explosion took place during the first half of 1967, i.e. just
before the period covered by the plates of Sanduleak et al. We
also note that the star is below the magnitude limit in the ESO-
Wurzburg atlas. However, more observations are needed to settle
the question of the nature of the object and it is anxious that
observers search their plate files accordingly.
    With the star properly identified, we measured its position
with the PDS machine of Lund Observatory. The result is
                  alpha = 17h40m31.8s +- 0.4s
                                              (1950)
                  delta =-36d01'42" +- 6" 
which slightly deviates from the position given by Sanduleak            
et al.



                      INGEMAR LUNDSTROM  and  BJORN STENHOLM
                           Lund Observatory, Svanegatan 9
                           S-222 24 Lund, Sweden



                       [FIGURE 1]

 Figure 1 a) Red chart from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
 b) Red plate (103a-E + RG 2) taken with the Uppsala Southern
 Schmidt August 27, 1968. The side of each chart is 3'.