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J.E. Lyke, C.E. Woodward, R.D. Gehrz (U. Minnesota), R.M. Wagner (LBT Observatory, U. Arizona), S.G. Starrfield (Arizona State U.), G. Schwarz (Steward Observatory, U. Arizona), C.B. Foltz (MMT Observatory, U. Arizona)
We present early optical spectroscopic and IR spectrophotometric observations of V445 Puppis. This putative nova was discovered on 28 November 2000 by K. Kanatsu (IAUC 7552). Our spectra from January 4.23 2001 UT and January 19.31 2001 UT were dominated by FeII emission and lacked Balmer and Paschen lines. We also identified neutral, permitted emission from C, N, O, Na, Mg, and Ca and emission from MgII and CaII all superposed on a blue continuum. The classification of this object is enigmatic due to the lack of Balmer emission on one hand, opposed to the strong FeII emission on the other.
Our 1-23 micron spectral energy distributions from 19.23 February, 21.23 February, and 15.16 March 2001 UT all fit the sum of two blackbodies at temperatures of 1800 and 560 K. This implies the IR evolution of this object is very slow.
We acknowledge partial support from NSF and NASA grants to UM, UA, and ASU.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: lyke@astro.umn.edu