New Light Curve for the 1909 Outburst of RT Serpentis
Received October 6, 2011; revised October 24, 2011; accepted October 24, 2011
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.