Preeruption light curves of novae.

Abstract

A catalog is presented of all published preeruption photometry of 33 novae, and preeruption light curves are constructed for 11 of the stars. With the possible exception of BT Mon, the preeruption and posteruption magnitudes are found to be the same for all 18 stars for which both magnitudes are known. Twelve stars are shown to have well-defined preeruption light curves, of which six showed changes in their light curves in the 1- to 15-year period prior to eruption and five showed a rise in brightness by a factor of 0.25 to 1.5. The preeruption and posteruption light curves of V446 Her are found to be different, with the prenova varying irregularly by almost 4 mag and the postnova varying by no more than 0.4. RR Tel is shown to have become a long-period variable prior to its eruption, and it is suggested that the M5 III star in this binary probably caused the eruption.