Astroblog: Nova Centauri 2013 (V1369 Cen) is Fading

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Nova Centauri 2013 (V1369 Cen) is Fading


V1369 Nova Centauri 2013 just above beta Centauri at 4:45 am ACDST 17 December . Stack of 10 images taken using a Canon IXUS, ASA 400, 10 second each exposure. Images registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker, the converted to RGB and contrast adjusted in ImageJ. Click to embiggen to actually see the nova	V1369 Nova Centauri 2013 just above beta Centauri at 4:05 am ACDST 15 December . Stack of 10 images taken using a Canon IXUS, ASA 400, 10 second each exposure. Images registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker, the converted to RGB and contrast adjusted in ImageJ. Click to embiggen to actually see the nova

Current lightcurve for V1369 Nova Centauri 2013 from the AAVSO. click to embigen.

Just two days after Nova Centauri 2013 became the brightest nova seen in our skies since 1999, it has crashed in brightness to around magnitude 5.

Whetehre we will see another outburst is uncertain, however, with the nearly full Moon in the sky the nova is now very difficult to see without binouclars.

A close up comparison of the nova (indicated by the line, on the 15th and 17th, the dimming is readly visible.

Labels: nova, unaided eye

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:36 pm

Comments:

Thanks Ian, at 0430 this morning, I was looking for it to be about as bright as Epsilon Crucis (my reference for magnitude 3.5ish) I could just see epsilon C. but not the nova. Now I know why.

# posted by