2011CBET.2735....1S

John Seach, Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia, reports his discovery of a possible nova (mag 9.5) on three CCD images (limiting mag 11.0) taken on June 1.40 UT with a digital SLR camera (+ 50-mm-f.l. f/1.2 lens + orange filter). Seach found the object to be located at R.A. = 16:55:11, Decl. = -38:38:12 (equinox 2000.0), and the designation PNV J16551100-3838120 was given to this object when posted on the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage. Nothing is visible at this position on Seach's images taken on May 30 UT (limiting mag 11.0) or on the ESO Online Digitized Sky Survey (no dates, bandpasses, or limiting magnitudes provided).

Arto Oksanen and Caisey Harlingten report that they obtained images of the suspected nova under partly-cloudy conditions using a 50-cm Dall- Kirkham telescope (+ Apogee Alta CCD camera) located at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on June 2.33 UT, yielding preliminary V magnitude 10.4 and position end figures 09s.48, 04".0. Their V-band images spanning a little over an hour show a constant fading of 0.15 mag/hr between June 2.333 and 2.375.

Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero write that they obtained unfiltered CCD images of PNV J16551100-3838120 on June 2.4 UT remotely with the GRAS RCOS 32-cm f/6.3 telescope at Officer, Australia, showing the variable at mag about 9.4 and at R.A. = 16:55:09.46, Decl.= -38:38:04.5 (equinox 2000.0; USNO-B1.0 catalogue reference stars). They have posted an animation showing a comparison between their image and a red Digitized Sky Survey plate from 1995 at website URL http://bit.ly/jK5mMP.

Visual magnitude estimates: June 2.564 UT, 11.2 (Peter Williams, Heathcote, NSW, 15-cm reflector; communicated by E. Waagen, AAVSO); June 2.975 UT, 11.1 [A. Amorim, Florianopolis, Brazil, 0.18-m reflector; magnitude source ASAS-3 chart 73-A00031(d) by Mati Morel].