A Survey for Novae in M33: Preliminary Results

An estimate of the nova rate in M33 provides a valuable constraint on the rate of nova production in a disk‐dominated, essentially bulgeless galaxy. Presented here are the preliminary results of a new Hα survey for novae in M33. Data analyzed thus far includes the inner 13′ × 13′ of the galaxy, yielding four novae detected to a limiting magnitude of mHα ≃ 17.5 ± 0.3. After correcting for the fraction of M33 covered in the survey, a preliminary nova rate for M33 of 4 ± 2 yr−1 is found.