The Extended Dust Emission Around GK Per

GK Per, a classical nova system that erupted in 1901, is one of the more unusual examples of its type. It has the longest known orbital period for a classical nova (1.997 d; Crampton, Cowley & Fisher 1986); and it contains a white dwarf primary with an evolved K2 sub-giant secondary. Most remarkably, the IRAS Sky Survey (1991) reveals that GK Per exhibits far-IR dust emission extending ~ 17′ to the NW and SE of the nova (Bode et al. 1987; Seaquist et al. 1989). We have re-analysed the IRAS data using maximum entropy reconstruction (Bontekoe et al. 1991; Bontekoe, Koper & Kester 1994) to resolve structures at a spatial resolution approaching the diffraction limit of IRAS, which is 1′ at 60μm and 1.7′ at 100 μm.