Astroblog: Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 Still Bright

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 Still Bright


Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 in the lid of the teapot of Sagittarius. This is a stack of 10x15 second exposures, ASA 400, 3x Zoom with my Canon IXUS, taken on 21 March at 5:10 am, click to embiggen	Chart of the same area showing the reference stars. click to embiggen and compare with the actual image.

PNV J18365700-2855420, is now Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 (because there was an earlier nova in Sagittarius). It is a classic nova based on its spectrum.

Light curve of Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2.

There were reports of it being magnitude 4.4, which makes it one of the brightest nova since nova Centauri 2013. It looks like it is fading now, but still above the unaided eye threshold. It is possible it may flare up again like nova Centauri 2013 and nova Delphinus 2013.

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 taken with iTelescope T12 on 19 March, single 60 second exposure. click to embiggen. compare with my earlier shot.

Cloud and timing have been my foe for this nova, I caught it once on the 21st at 5:00am, when it was just visible to the averted eye. Lack of decent reference stars at the time suggested it was around magnitude 5. Then on the 22nd I was able to see it only in twilight with binoculars, but it was very distinctive, altering the shape of the teapot asterism.

While it is still bright it is worth getting up in the morning for a look. Observing charts are here.

Labels: astrophotography, binocular, nova, unaided eye