Sculptor C has an absolute magnitude of about −9.1 which is typical for other recently discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxies.

An earlier image (from April 24, 2008), taken just after NGC 300 reemerged from behind the Sun, evidenced an already brightening OT at ~16.3 magnitude.

[13][15] Additionally, the photometric and spectroscopic properties of the OT imply that it is not a luminous blue variable either.

[15] After September 2008, brightness continued to fall at a lower rate in the optical spectrum but with strong Hα emissions.

[13] Research into historical Hubble images provide an accurate upper bound on the progenitor star's brightness.

[13] This suggested a low-mass main sequence star as progenitor with the transient resulting from a stellar merger similar to red Galactic nova V838 Monocerotis.

[13] Analysis of historical images of the area of the OT suggest with 70% certainty that the progenitor formed in a burst of stars around 8–13 Myr ago and implies the progenitor's mass to be 12–25 M⊙ assuming the OT is due to an evolving massive star.

This was a star that was obscured by dust, with energy distribution analogous to a black-body of R ≈ 300 AU and radiating at T ≈ 300 K with Lbol ≈ ×106 L⊙.

The transient's low luminosity as compared to typical core-collapse supernova, combined with its spectral attributes and dust covered properties, make it nearly identical to NGG 6946's SN 2008S.

[17] Two sets of independent follow-up spectroscopy data suggested that this was again another optical transient rather than a supernova, possibly an outbursting luminous blue variable star according to one spectrum,[18][19] as earlier predicted from the nature of the candidate mid-infrared progenitor.

[28] There is an oxygen-sequence Wolf-Rayet star (WO4 type), known as STWR 13, located in one of the bright H II regions in NGC 300.