Discovery of an extensive optical nebula around the symbiotic nova V 1016Cygni.

The discovery of an extended nebula of diameter about 24 arcsec around the symbiotic nova V 1016 Cyg from long-slit high-resolution spectroscopy of the H-alpha, He II 468.6-nm and forbidden O III 500.7-nm emission lines is reported. The existence of the nebula is confirmed by CCD images obtained in forbidden O III. The nebula was mapped spectroscopically but the profile changes are difficult to explain in simple terms. The extent of the nebulosity is similar to that inferred for a cool dust component by IRAS observations, for a distance of 0.6 kpc.