Scope of the Catalog: A table of novae in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) going back to the first recorded nova in 1897 was compiled by W. Pietsch and posted on the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) webpage (MPE SMC Catalog). That catalog was last updated in September 2021. My purpose in the following table is to continue the SMC nova catalog in an abbreviated form, and to correct it where later work allows. The first part of the table lists the 26 optical nova eruptions, plus two unconfirmed candidates (SMCN 2025-08a = AT 2025yid and SMCN 2026-09a = AT 2026ably, whose designations I have assigned and are not official); the second lists four supersoft X-ray sources in Be+white dwarf binaries that showed no optical nova outburst and are not counted as novae.
At present, I give the nova name, the JD of the discovery, the equatorial coordinates (J2000), the reported maximum magnitude and filter, the spectroscopic class (where known), notes, and references. The magnitudes are as reported and are not necessarily the true peak; "<" marks cases where the maximum was missed, and ":" an uncertain value. Filter codes are pg (photographic), w (unfiltered), and standard band names; ? means no filter information is available. The Type column gives the spectroscopic class, based on the Fe II and He/N classes of Williams (1992), where one has been published, as given in the original references: Fe II; He/N; Hybrid (Fe IIb systems displaying broad He and N lines); and Nova (spectroscopically confirmed as a nova, class not given). A question mark indicates an uncertain class, "X or Y" an ambiguous one, and a blank entry means that no class is available. Positions, dates and magnitudes through 2020 are from the MPE catalog except where noted: positions for the novae of 1897–1952, 1974-08a and 1986-10a are from Morel (2021), and those of 1897–1952 differ from MPE's by 17–41" (by 16′ for HV 849); and the dates of 2004-06a and 2006-08a and several maximum magnitudes have been revised from the original sources, as noted in the table. A machine-readable version of the table, with units and column descriptions, is available in astropy ECSV format as smc_nova_table.ecsv, and as a plain CSV file for spreadsheets, smc_nova_table.csv.
Author: A. W. Shafter (SDSU).
How to cite this catalog: If you use data from this catalog in a publication, please cite it as: Shafter, A. W., A Living Catalog of Novae in the Small Magellanic Cloud, https://ashafter.sdsu.edu/smc_nova_table.html (accessed [date]). Data for novae discovered through 2020 are from the MPE catalog of W. Pietsch (https://www.mpe.mpg.de/~m31novae/opt/smc/SMC_table.html), which should also be acknowledged. Positions for several of the older novae are from Morel (2021). Where your work relies on the properties of individual novae, please also cite the original references given in the References column. This catalog is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
| Name | JD | R.A. (h, m, s) | Decl. (°, ',") | mag | Type | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMCN 1897-10a | 2414213.0 | 1 02 11.40 | -70 02 56.0 | 11.4 pg | HV 849 | McKibben 1951; Henize et al. 1954; Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) | |
| SMCN 1927-10a | 2425157.5 | 0 34 00.94 | -73 16 07.0 | 11.4 pg | Shapley & Hughes 1935; Henize et al. 1954; Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) | ||
| SMCN 1951-06a | 2433858.0 | 0 35 22.30 | -72 58 11.6 | 11.8: R | Fe II? | date, max.: Henize et al. 1954; should be SMCN 1951-07a; original name kept for consistency with earlier catalogs | Henize et al. 1954; Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) |
| SMCN 1952-12a | 2434368.5 | 0 48 29.28 | -73 30 46.4 | 11.0 pg | Smith 1954; Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) | ||
| SMCN 1974-08a | 2442278.5 | 0 26 02.11 | -74 01 05.2 | 11.0 V | pos.: Morel 2021 | MacConnell & Sanduleak 1974 (IAUC 2696); Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) | |
| SMCN 1986-10a | 2446709.0 | 0 36 52.46 | -72 04 40.8 | 10.1 V | pos.: Morel 2021 | McNaught 1986 (IAUC 4283); Morel 2021 (VSS Newsletter 2021-1) | |
| SMCN 1994-06a | 2449504.5 | 0 51 29.69 | -73 19 39.7 | 14.5 B | de Laverny et al. 1998 | ||
| SMCN 1996-06a | 2450239.3 | 0 54 43.03 | -72 32 20.8 | 13.5 V | Welch 1997 (IAUC 6713); Shida & Liller 2004 | ||
| SMCN 1998-12a | 2451173.0 | 1 02 21.79 | -73 18 27.0 | 13.5 V | Welch 1999 (IAUC 7121) | ||
| SMCN 1999-07a | 2451387.6 | 0 53 40.01 | -72 12 32.0 | 13.6 R | Glicenstein 1999 (IAUC 7239) | ||
| SMCN 1999-08a | 2451393.5 | 0 48 51.70 | -72 30 15.1 | 13.0 V | Welch 1999 (IAUC 7308) | ||
| SMCN 1999-09a | 2451439.7 | 0 59 22.99 | -73 07 55.9 | 12.8 R | Glicenstein 1999 (IAUC 7286) | ||
| SMCN 2001-10a | 2452191.7 | 0 46 27.91 | -73 29 45.6 | <12.1 V | Fe II | max. missed | Mróz et al. 2016; Liller 2001 (IAUC 7738); Mason et al. 2005; Mason et al. 2002 |
| SMCN 2002-10a | 2452563.7 | 0 56 30.43 | -72 36 28.4 | 12.3 V | Be+WD? | Mróz et al. 2016; Liller 2002 (IAUC 7995) | |
| SMCN 2004-06a | 2453169.5 | 0 55 03.22 | -73 38 03.5 | 14.2 I | date: Mróz et al. 2016; rebrightening | Mróz et al. 2016 | |
| SMCN 2005-08a | 2453588.9 | 1 15 00.07 | -73 25 37.6 | 11.6 V | Fe II | Mróz et al. 2016; Liller et al. 2005 (IAUC 8582); Mason et al. 2005 (CBET 195); Mason et al. 2005 (IAUC 8582) | |
| SMCN 2006-08a | 2453950.5 | 0 57 03.86 | -73 10 11.6 | <11.8 I | date: Mróz et al. 2016; max. missed | Mróz et al. 2016 | |
| SMCN 2008-10a | 2454770.7 | 0 55 37.73 | -72 03 14.4 | 13.0 I | Mróz et al. 2016 | ||
| SMCN 2011-11a | 2455876.7 | 1 59 25.87 | -74 15 28.1 | <14.3 I | MAXI J0158−744; Be+WD | Kimura et al. 2011 (ATel 3756); Li et al. 2012; Mróz et al. 2016 | |
| SMCN 2012-06a | 2456083.5 | 0 32 55.06 | -74 20 19.7 | 11.0 I | Nova | O–Ne | Wyrzykowski et al. 2012 (ATel 4483); Schwarz et al. 2012 (ATel 4501); Mróz et al. 2016 |
| SMCN 2012-09a | 2456187.7 | 0 48 07.27 | -72 46 34.0 | 12.1 I | Mróz et al. 2016 | ||
| SMCN 2016-10a | 2457670.7 | 1 06 03.26 | -74 47 15.7 | 8.5 w | He/N | Galactic? (Hachisu & Kato 2018) | Mróz et al. 2016 (ATel 9622); Lipunov et al. 2016 (ATel 9631); Jablonski & Oliveira 2016 (ATel 9684); Williams & Darnley 2016 (ATel 9628); Shumkov et al. 2016 (ATel 9621); Aydi et al. 2018; Hachisu & Kato 2018 |
| SMCN 2019-07a | 2458668.8 | 1 04 30.19 | -73 46 22.8 | <11.0 g | Hybrid | ASAS-SN (TNS 2019kli); Aydi et al. 2019 (ATel 12907); Bohlsen 2019 (ATel 12917); Bohlsen 2019 (ATel 12938); Izzo et al. 2022 | |
| SMCN 2020-10a | 2459148.5 | 0 48 44.57 | -72 53 53.9 | 10.6 V | Nova | max.: VSX | Way et al. 2020 (ATel 14122); Aydi et al. 2020 (ATel 14123); Kuin et al. 2020 (ATel 14137); Kuin et al. 2020 (ATel 14147); Watson et al. 2006 (VSX) |
| SMCN 2024-05a | 2460456.9 | 0 52 45.10 | -72 28 43.7 | ~14.4 I | CXOU J0052-7228; Be+WD | Gaudin et al. 2024 | |
| SMCN 2025-08a | 2460912.9 | 1 03 22.85 | -72 54 11.9 | 16.6 ? | AT 2025yid; unconfirmed; type unknown | BlackGEM (TNS 2025yid) | |
| SMCN 2026-06a | 2461202.9 | 0 50 45.14 | -71 38 37.0 | 10.5 g | Nova | ASASSN-26dt; CSM; SSS | Chomiuk et al. 2026 (ATel 17878); Kuin 2026 (GCN 45106); Mlangeni et al. 2026 (TNS Classification Report); Gaudin et al. 2026 (ATel 18087) |
| SMCN 2026-09a | 2461290.6 | 0 46 54.23 | -73 34 03.5 | 14.5 R | AT 2026ably; unconfirmed; faded >4 mag in 9 d; possible foreground CV | Balam et al. (TNS 2026ably) | |
| Supersoft X-ray Be+WD candidates (no optical outburst; not counted as novae) | |||||||
| AzV 281 | 2451651.4 | 1 01 47.50 | -71 55 50.2 | ... | XMMU J0101; nova unlikely | Sturm et al. 2012 | |
| Swift J0115 | ~2459212 | 1 15 10.99 | -72 56 11.0 | ... | ~3-month outburst; P ≈ 17.4 d | Kennea et al. 2021 | |
| Swift J0044 | 2458870 | 0 44 27.31 | -73 48 01.1 | ... | ~21.5-d optical flares | Coe et al. 2020 | |
| Suzaku J0105 | 2453613 | 1 05 49.01 | -72 07 26.0 | ... | single flash; pos. ±20" | Takei et al. 2008; Cracco et al. 2018 | |
*Data through 2020 are from the MPE SMC Catalog, revised as noted. Last updated 4 November 2026; table maintenance is now being assisted by AI (Claude Opus 5.5).