A brace of bright supernovae

Astronomy News, Deep Sky Section, Images from Amateur Astronomers, Uncategorized, Variable Star Section No Responses »
Mar 202012

Two ‘bright’ supernovae in nearby galaxies are well within the range of most amateur astronomers telescopes.

Supernova Candidate PSN J10435372+1140177 in M95 – now designated 2012aw

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Supernova 2012aw imaged by Nick James on March 18th

This supernova was discovered on 2012 March 16.8493 by J. Skvarc & Alessandro Dimai of the Italian Supernovae Search Project.

M95 is at R.A. = 10h43m53s.72, Decl. = +11°40′17″.7 (= NGC 3351) and the SN is located 60″ west and 115″ south of the center of M95. M95 is well placed for observation, transiting at around 23:00 UT, with the galaxy culminating at about 50° altitude.  M95 is part of the Leo I group of galaxies, about 38 million light years distant.

A discovery image can be found here:
www.observatorij.org/vstars/PSN20120317/PSNJ10435372+1140177.jpg

Nick James observation of this object (above) puts it at about magnitude 13 and adds that unfortunately Mars is very close and has caused significant interference with the image.  However, Mars will continue to move further away as time progresses.

And here is an image by Martin Mobberley, the following night:

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Supernova 2012aw imaged by Martin Mobberley on March 19th

SN 2012au in NGC 4790 in Virgo

Discovered by the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey and Stan Howerton (USA) at mag 18.2C on 2012 March 14.450 but it has rapidly brightened and is currently at magnitude 13.25V.   This SN is of Type Ib, and apparently found in the early stages of its evolution so it may well brighten further.

However, it is vary close to the core of the host galaxy, but is the brightest supernova so far this year. Recent images etc can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/watchingthesky/6846911246

NGC 4790 is at R.A. = 12h54m52s.18, Decl. = -10°14′50″.2 and the SN is located 3″.5 east and 2″.0 north of the center of NGC 4790. NGC 4790 is not very far from Saturn, but currently culminates at about 27° altitude at around 01:00 UT.

Further information on these and other supernovae can be found on the extensive web page of the International Supernova Network and the Astronomy Section of the Rochester Academy of Sciences at:
www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html.

Posted by Callum Potter at 13:37

Images of Comet 2009 P1 Garradd and the Coathanger

Comet Section, Images from Amateur Astronomers 3 Responses »
Sep 052011

BAA members around the country managed to combine to produce a fine set of images over four nights to capture the passing of Comet 2009 P1 Garradd over the Coathanger.

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2011 September 1 - Maurice Gavin, Worcester Park

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2011 September 2 - John Vetterlein, Rousay, Orkney

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2011 September 2 - Maurice Gavin, Worcester Park

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2011 September 3 - Martin Mobberley, GRAS remote telescope

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2011 September 4 - Alan Tough - Elgin, Scotland

Posted by Callum Potter at 17:09 Tagged with: Comet Garradd, featured

Comet Garradd sweeps past the Coathanger

Astronomy News, Comet Section, Deep Sky Section, Images from Amateur Astronomers 2 Responses »
Sep 012011

As Comet Garradd makes its lazy sweep across the night sky, after last weeks close encounter with M71, this week the comet will cross just under the popular asterism known as the Coathanger. Also known as Brocchi’s Cluster and catalogued as Collinder 399 – today, though, it is generally recognised to be just an asterism, a chance collection of stars making up a pattern, rather than a true cluster of stars that were created at much the same time.

The Coathanger also has a special place in the heart of the BAA, as one of the Association’s most active observers, George Alcock, discovered a nova there in 1976.

This chart shows the comets path over the next few days.

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This comet is easy with 10×50 binoculars, and is straightforward to find by locating the lovely double star Albireo (Beta Cygni), then hang down south and you will come to the Coathanger, and just under the Coathanger will be found comet Garradd.

If you manage to capture an image of this, please send it in for our picture of the week spot.

Posted by Callum Potter at 13:53 Tagged with: coathanger, comet, garradd

Supernova in M101

Astronomy News, Deep Sky Section, Images from Amateur Astronomers, Variable Star Section 4 Responses »
Aug 262011

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) discovered a supernova in M101 on August 24th. At magnitude 17.2 it was pretty faint, but as this supernova was discovered ‘on the rise’ it has been steadily brightening, and may reach mag. 10 or 11 – making it easily visible in binoculars or a small telescope.

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Image of supernova PTF11kly in M101 by BAA Member Denis Buczyski

Although M101 is in the circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major, and so will never set from UK locations, it does not attain a very high altitude, and will be best placed for observation as soon as the sky becomes dark.

The observations of supernovae are important, because they are a key component of the distance ladder. This is a series of stepping stone techniques used to measure distances to far-off galaxies. It is thought that type Ia supernovae explode with much the same brightness due to the physical nature of the star, so finding a supernova relatively close-by helps our understanding of the physics of the explosion, and further help the calibration of the distance scale.

Amateur astronomers can best contribute to the science by measuring the brightness of the supernova, and contribute to it’s light curve.

But there is also a great pleasure in seeing for yourself one of the greatest cosmic events, which happened 23 million years ago and the light of the event has just reached us.

Posted by Callum Potter at 13:54 Tagged with: featured, m101, supernova

Picture of the Week: NEO 2011 MD

Asteroids and Remote Planets Section, Astronomy News, Picture of the Week No Responses »
Jun 272011

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Asteroid 2011 MD on June 26 - Image by Nick James

Nick James from Chelmsford captured this fast moving near earth object on 2011 June 26. Images at 22:44 and 22:49 UT.

Closest approach will be at around 17:00 UT on the 27th June when the object will be around 8000 miles from the Earth.

More information about this interesting object can be found on the Sky and Telescope website.

If anyone else is successful in imaging this object, please email results to picture@britastro.org

Posted by Callum Potter at 13:56 Tagged with: 2011MD, asteroid, NEO

Picture of the Week: Noctilucent Clouds – Alan Tough

Astronomy News, Aurora Section, Picture of the Week No Responses »
Jun 132011

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Noctilucent clouds on the night of 2/3 June 2011, by Alan Tough, Elgin, Moray

The 2011 Noctilucent Cloud season is now underway, with a small display seen on the night of 2/3 June 2011. Alan Tough from Elgin captured this shot at 00:07 UT.

For more reports see the Noctilucent Cloud Observers’ Homepage.

Posted by Callum Potter at 14:10 Tagged with: NLC, Noctilucent clouds

Picture of the Week: ISS Transit

Picture of the Week, Solar Section 1 Response »
Jun 062011

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ISS Transit - Nick James

Nick James writes:

“This is my first attempt at an ISS solar transit. I used Calsky for the track details and set up a portable system around 1km from the centreline just north of here. This used a Megrez 72mm refractor with a x2 Barlow and a Canon EOS550D running in HD video mode (1920×1080) at 30 frame/s. This image is the result of minimum stacking 45 video frames.

This wasn’t a very good pass since the ISS was a long way away (it can be twice this size at its closest) and I will try to use a longer focal length next time but it demonstrated that the Calsky predictions are right on.”

Posted by Callum Potter at 16:49 Tagged with: ISS, Sun, transit

Picture of the week: Sadr, Butterfly and Crescent Nebulae

Deep Sky Section, Picture of the Week No Responses »
May 312011
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Sadr, Butterfly and Crescent Nebulae - Bob Winter

Imaged from a London rooftop, the Sadr, Butterfly and Crescent Nebulae in Cygnus taken on 25th May 2011.

Wide angle view, Hasselblad 150mm FL lens on QSI 583 camera.
LRBG using Ha and Olll Astrodon filters. 80 min approx total.
Posted by Callum Potter at 13:50 Tagged with: crescent nebula, deep sky

Picture of the Week: Atlas and Hercules Craters by Damian Peach

Lunar Section, Picture of the Week No Responses »
May 232011

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Atlas and Hercules Craters - Damian Peach

Damian Peach took this image of the Atlas and Hercules craters on 2011 May 10 at 19:44UT from Selsey, West Sussex, UK.

Posted by Callum Potter at 20:52 Tagged with: crater, lunar

Picture of the Week: M1 using 2MASS data

Deep Sky Section, Picture of the Week No Responses »
May 172011

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M1 comparison using data from 2MASS - Graham Relf

Graham writes:

I have been pursuing David Boyd’s point in his 2010 Presidential Address (in the current Journal) that we amateurs could usefully work on the huge amount of data that is available on the Internet which the professionals do not have time to analyse.

The 2-micron all-sky survey (2MASS) was a professional project that ran from 1997 to 2001. Its images are available as FITS files on the Internet for anyone to download and process (go to irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/Gator/). 2MASS imaged in 3 wavebands: Johnson H, J and K (respectively centred on 1.25, 1.65 and 2.17 microns) using two 1.3 metre telescopes in USA and Chile.

I have used 3 such images of M1, the Crab Nebula, to make a false colour image, treating the H band as red, J as green and K as blue. That is what you see in the left half of this image. (Original files aH_asky_971018n0810185.fits, etc, created on 1997 Oct 18 at 9:14 UT). Compare this with optical photos and you will see that the shape of the nebula is rather different at these infra-red wavelengths.

As created, my RGB image had 64 bits per colour channel and I processed it as such to make the version on the right. I did a wide radius unsharp mask by blurring the image and then subtracting a proportion of that blurred version from the original. That had the effect of exaggerating subtle details. It is known that M1 has strong magnetic fields (partly from photography through polarising filters at optical wavelengths) and so I suppose my result probably shows gas looping around the field lines. Maybe no-one has seen this particular view before.

M1 has been in the news recently because the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma ray flares from it, which no-one can explain.

Who knows what awaits discovery in the vast online repository of unanalysed images?

Graham Relf
www.grelf.net

Posted by Callum Potter at 17:49 Tagged with: 2MASS, M1, remnant, supernova
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