COMMISSIONS 27 AND 42 OF THE IAU 
             INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS 
                          Number 3779 
 
                                          Konkoly Observatory 
                                          Budapest 
                                          29 September 1992 

                                          HU ISSN 0374 - 0676 
 
 
             NSV 12006 - NO EVIDENCE FOR ERUPTIONS ON 
                        SONNEBERG PLATES 
 
 
 Solovyov (1949a) announced the discovery of a single plate of a 
possible Nova Aquilae 1949 (= NSV 12006). Several attempts have been 
made since then to check or disprove the reality of this image or to 
confirm the presence of an unusual object at the given position: 
Schaefer (1987), Wenzel (1987), Karnashov and Moskalenko (1988), 
Schaefer (1990), Greiner and Wenzel (1990). The last-mentioned authors 
examined Solovyov's original plate by a special microscopic technique 
using reflected light and came to the conclusion that the object shows 
all features of a real stellar image. 
 
 Therefore we inspected the location of the object on about 3000 
suitable plates of the Sonneberg collection in order to possibly 
detect further eruptions. The material comprises 2520 plates of the 
sky patrol taken between 1926 and 1992 mainly by P. Ahnert, H. Huth, 
and B. Fuhrmann (exposure time 30 to 60 minutes, threshold 12m to 
14.5m) and 474 plates centered at delta Aql and exposed at the 
astrographs with the dimension 17/120 cm, 40/190 cm, and 40/160 cm by 
C. Hoffmeister, R. Brandt, G. Richter et al. in the years 1928 to 
1992, with major gasps (exposure time as above, threshold 15m to 
17.5m). 
 
 No eruption could be discovered. 
 
 There remains, however, some obscurity concerning the position: 1. 
The diameter of the image on the Dushanbe plate is about 40.2". 
Karnashov and Moskalenko (l. c.) gave an accuracy of their 
co-ordinates of +/-1.3". These co-ordinates exactly equal those of 
Solovyov (1946b), despite a difference of the equinoxes of 1 year 
(1950.0 and 1949.0) 
 
 About 10" to the west of Karnashov and Moskalenko's position a star 
of 16.5m is to be seen on the POSS and on numerous astrographic 
plates of ours. To this star (marked with two strokes in our map), 
which lies well within the boundaries of Solovyov's image (circle in 
the map), the authors just quoted did not pay attention, probably 
because it is situated outside their error box. Nevertheless, as a 
precaution we checked it but could not find any conspicuous 
variability. 


                            [FIGURE 1]

 
 Part of this work has been supported by the Bundesministerium fur 
Forschung und Technologie under contract no. 05-5S0414. 
 
 
                          W. WENZEL 
                          Sternwarte 
                          O-6400 Sonneberg, FRG 
 
                          C. GLAUBITZ 
                          Physikalisches Institut der 
                          Universitat 
                          O-7010 Leipzig, FRG 
 
                          J. GREINER 
                          Max-Planck-Institut fur 
                          Extraterrestrische Physik 
                          W-8046 Garching, FRG 
 
 
References: 
 
Greiner, J., Wenzel, W.: 1990, Proc. Workshop Gamma-ray Bursts, Taos 
 
Karnashov, A. N., Moskalenko, E. I.: 1988, Astron. Tsirk. No. 1529  [BIBCODE 1988ATsir1529....9K ]
 
Schaefer, B. E.: 1987, I.B.V.S. No. 3082 
 
Schaefer, B. E.: 1990, Astrophys. J., 353, L25  [BIBCODE 1990ApJ...353L..25S ]
 
Solovyov, A. V.: 1949a, Astron. Tsirk. No. 87 
 
Solovyov, A. V.: 1949b, Astron. Tsirk. No. 88 
 
Wenzel, W.: 1987, I.B.V.S. No. 3114