Life after eruption - V. Spectroscopy of eight candidate old novae with Gemini-South

We present the analysis of photometric and spectroscopic data on eight candidates for post-nova systems. Five post-novae, V528 Aql, HS Sge, BS Sgr, GR Sgr and V999 Sgr, are successfully recovered. We furthermore identify likely candidates for the fields of V1301 Aql, V1151 Sgr and V3964 Sgr. The spectroscopic properties of the confirmed post-novae are briefly discussed. We find that two of the oldest post-novae in our sample, GR Sgr and V999 Sgr, contain an optically thick accretion disc, and thus can be suspected to have a high mass-transfer rate, contrary to what one would expect from most models. HS Sge and V528 Aql show evidence for a (comparatively) high system inclination, which makes them attractive targets for time-series observations. Finally, the presence of particularly strong He II emission together with a small eruption amplitude suggests that BS Sgr is a good candidate for an intermediate polar.