2008IAUC.8976....1R

R. J. Rudy, D. K. Lynch, R. W. Russell, and B. Kaneshiro, The Aerospace Corporation; and M. Sitko and H. Hammel, Space Science Institute, report 0.8- to 2.4-micron spectroscopy of V1309 Sco (N Sco 2008; cf. IAUC 8972) on Sept. 5 UT using the Spex instrument at the Infrared Telescope Facility. V1309 Sco is at a very early stage of development, mimicking an F-giant spectrum and showing weak emission lines for only a few of the lower series Pashchen transitions and some of the stronger transitions of Fe II. The spectrum is dominated by aborption features including most of the higher Pashcen series, all of the Brackett lines, the Ca II triplet, and lines of C I and N I. The presence of iron emission at this early stage indicates that V1309 Sco is an "Fe II"-type nova. This, plus the narrowness of the lines (full-width-at-half-maximum about 300 km/s) and the predominance of the absorption spectrum suggest that the V1309 Sco eruption resulted from the ejection of a massive, low-velocity shell by a carbon-oxygen white dwarf.