Near-simultaneous ROSAT and Ginga observations of the 1991 X-ray transient in Musca

The quasi simultaneous Rosat/Ginga observations of the Musca X-ray transient are reported. During its all sky survey, Rosat observed the Musca 1991 X-ray transient on 24-25 Jan. 1991, two weeks after outbursts, for about 170 seconds. The intensity was found to be nearly 6 Crab in the Rosat band. A combined fit of Rosat and Ginga data from 25 Jan. 1991 with a multitemperature disk blackbody model data plus a power law component results in a maximal temperature of the disk of about kT = 0.96 keV at an absorbing column of N(sub H) = 2.2 x 10(exp 21)/sq cm. A minimum distance to the black hole binary of at least 4 to 5 kpc was derived. Including the accretion disk inclination angle of i = 26 +/- 25 degrees determined from the shape of the positron annihilation line, and the quiescent optical brightness together with the most probable spectral type of the companion, a black hole mass of M = (6 +/- 1.5) of the solar mass and a distance of about (11 +/- 3) kpc, were derived. Additional Rosat observations in Aug. 1991 and Mar. 1992 suggest that the exponential intensity decay until 240 days after the outburst is followed by a steeper decline between 240 and 410.