2022AJ....163..300L

T Aurigae is an eclipsing old nova that exploded in 1891. At a Gaia EDR3 distance of 815-871 pc, it is a relatively nearby old nova. Through ultraviolet spectral modeling and using the new precise Gaia distance, we find that the HST/STIS spectrum of T Aurigae is consistent with an accretion disk with a mass-transfer rate \dot{M} of the order of 10^–8M_☉ yr^–1, for a white-dwarf mass of M_wd ≃ 0.7 ± 0.2M_☉, an inclination of i ∼ 60°, and a Gaia distance of of {840}_{-25}^{+31} pc. The sharp absorption lines of metals cannot form in the disk and are likely forming in material above the disk (e.g., due stream disk overflow), in circumbinary material, and/or in material associated with the ejected shell from the 1891 nova explosion. The saturated hydrogen Lyα absorption feature is attributed to a large interstellar-medium hydrogen-column density of the order of 10²¹cm^–2 toward T Aur, as corroborated by the value of its reddening E(B - V) = 0.42 ± 0.08.