When a Nova Becomes Old

Abstract

Here we present the preliminary results of a project aimed at unveiling the nature of classical novae decades after their eruption. The ultimate goal of this project is to describe the population of cataclysmic variables which give rise to nova explosions. So far, in four years of observations, we have concentrated on novae in the Southern hemisphere, where we increased by 100% the amount of objects spectroscopically confirmed and increased by 1/5 the amount of objects with known orbital period.