AstroNote 2026-233

The BHTOM.space network coordinated an observing campaign to monitor the AT 2026rdg (=ZTF26abemjfk, =Nova Aql 2026, =V2104 Aql) discovered in the constellation Aquila on July 1, 2026, by M. Ning and H. Lin (more: https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=17867 ) and confirmed by K. Sokolosky.

Spectroscopy gathered for AT 2026rdg suggests that it is a highly reddened FeII-type nova. The BHTOM network conducted follow-up observations which commenced on July 2, 2026, approximately one day after initial discovery and are still ongoing. During this period, over 5000 measurements were obtained using a variety of different-sized telescopes, including a 14-inch reflector of the ROAD Observatory (Atacama, Chile), a 60-cm RC telescope of the University of Salerno (Italy), as well as amateur Seestar telescopes. Photometric data were taken in U, B, V, R & I filters and subsequently transformed into Gaia Synthetic Photometry (GaiaSP) for consistency. Some observations from ROAD were taken without a filter, and those were transformed to Gaia DR3 (G) band.

The event was also observed by the ATLAS and ZTF sky surveys. There are some archival measurements from 2MASS, WISE and SkyMapper surveys. The multi-band light curve in BHTOM shows a steady decline in brightness for the entire period of observations.

Observations of the object with BHTOM will continue until the object returns to its quiet state.

Detailed light curves and associated statistics are presented on the webpage: https://bhtom.space/public/targets/AT 2026rdg. Further details and the full photometric dataset are available for download by registered users of the BHTOM.space platform. 

Acknowledgements: BHTOM.space is based on the open-source TOM Toolkit by LCO and has been supported by the European Union's research and innovation programmes under grant agreements No 101004719 (OPTICON-RadioNet Pilot, ORP) and 101131928 (ACME).