New Light Curve for the 1909 Outburst of RT Serpentis

Volume 40 number 2 (2012)

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Grant Luberda

Yerkes Observatory, 373 W. Geneva St., Williams Bay, WI 53191; email correspondence should be sent to Wayne.Osborn@cmich.edu

Wayne Osborn

Yerkes Observatory, 373 W. Geneva St., Williams Bay, WI 53191; email correspondence should be sent to Wayne.Osborn@cmich.edu

Abstract

A new light curve for the 1909 outburst of the unusual nova RT Serpentis has been derived. Published observations have been compiled and new brightness measures determined from archival photographic plates. Modern photometry has been used to place the observations approximately on the UBV system. The outburst had an overall increase of at least 5 magnitudes and reached maximum in 1917 May with B = 11.0 and V = 10.1