X-Ray Nova in VELA

K. Borozdin, R. Sunyaev and N. Alexandrovich, on behalf of the Mir-Kvant-TTM team, report: "The x-ray nova GRS 1009-45 (IAUC 5864, 5878) continues to be bright. The flux on Oct. 27 within the 2-6 keV spectral band was 530 mCrab (a 25 percent decrease in four weeks). The spectrum is soft and might be approximated by a power law with photon spectral index -5.0 or black body spectrum with kT = 0.56 keV. Owing to the presence of Vela X-1 in the same field TTM was able to localize the source to within a narrow strip 1.2 arcmin wide and 1.3 degree long with corners at R.A. = 10h10m.8, Decl. = -45d43'.2; 10h10m.8, -45d42'.7; 10h12m.4, -44d26'.0 and 10h12m.5, -44d26'.1 (equinox 1950.0). By combining the Granat/WATCH and BATSE data it is possible to reduce the strip's length by up to 0.5 deg."