| Abstract | Eight new spatially resolved nova shells have been found by imaging with a digital detector through a narrow H-alpha filter, and two old novae have been recovered. The 11 novae with the best determined maximum luminosities at outburst of the sample of 21 novae with reliable distances are used to derive a M(v) max-rate of decline relationship. These 11 objects have a mean M(v) 15 days past maximum of - 5.60 + or 0.45 mag. If it is assumed that M(v) 15 is in fact constant, as is suggested by the theory, then for the full sample of 21 objects, it is found that M(v) max, corr = -10.70(+ or - 0.30) + 2.41(+ or - 0.23) log (t2), where t2 is the time in days to decline 2 mag below maximum light. Having removed all obvious sources of observational error, it is deduced that the dispersion in nova outburst luminosity for a fixed rate of decline is 0.45 mag. Previously published surveys of novae in M31 are used to redetermine the distance to that galaxy. |
