Astroblog: Nova Scorpii Seen!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Nova Scorpii Seen!

Nova Scorpii 2007 imgaged! Click on image to enlarge it so you can see the Nova. The image was taken 4:30 am ACDST, and is a stack of 4 x 6 second exposures with an Olympus mu:300 digital. Images had dark frames subtracted and were stacked in The Gimp.

Having staggered out at 4:00 am, I actually saw it. Just, seeing conditions here were awful, with lots of high hazy cloud and skyglow. But after my eyes got adjusted I could see the nova easily with averted vision, and just with direct vision. It was very obvious in binoculars. I think it may have faded a little, it looked to be about magnitude 4.2 rather than 3.7, but with messy skies who knows. Comparison stars were TYC 7884-2876-1 (4.27), TYC 7353-3153-1(4.18), TYC 7353-3152-1 (4.22) and TYC 7368-1546-1 (4.87). My estimate of 4.2 isn't too far off from recent AAVSO reports.

See also the Ice in Space Threads.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 9:20 am