Koichi Itagaki has discovered a bright nova in Delphinus. After spectroscopic confirmation, it got the official designation Nova Delphini 2013.
At first, the sky over Lund was cloudy. I waited and waited, but at about 02 local time (00 UT) I gave up and went to bed. However, some 45 minutes or so later I awoke and decided to leave bed and was greeted with a clear sky!
The nova was easy to find and I estimated its brightness to be 6.0 at August 15, 00.50 UT using 6×30 and 15×70 binoculars. The sequence used was an AAVSO chart, with convenient comparison stars at 5.7 and 6.2.
After that, the nova appears to have brightened somewhat:
Looking forward to following this bright nova!
