The interstellar extinction to V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's object)

¹ Department of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
² Gemini Observatory, 670 N. A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
³ Centre for Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 2HE, UK

Corresponding author: A. Evans, ae@astro.keele.ac.uk

Received: 8 August 2002
Accepted: 26 August 2002

Abstract

We present an 8–13m spectrum of V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's object), which shows clear evidence for the presence of a silicate absorption feature at 9.7m. We argue that the feature is interstellar in origin, and on this basis we determine the interstellar extinction to V4334 Sgr to be . This is the only determination of the extinction to V4334 Sgr to date that uses direct observation of the intervening material; as the reddening using this method is refined it will be of importance in determining the distance of V4334 Sgr, and hence in modelling its evolution.