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New Supernova in Messier 101

PaulB

By PaulB
in Observing - Deep Sky

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Ursa Major

Ursa Major

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I find I use both averted and direct, ideally by placing the two stars I am comparing at the same distance from the centre of the FOV. I then try to see whether the brightness change I see as I flick back and forth between the two is more or less symmetrical, i.e. if the the appearance "mirrors" as I flick back and forth. I then try to look at the centre of the FOV to judge both in averted vision. The SN is bright enough to be seen in direct vision in my scope.

Just about visible with direct vision in my scope to. I don’t think the, putting the stars equal distance from the centre and then looking at the centre would work for me though, because my averted vision is different when I look in different positions. When I look to the top-top right-right of the star it is the strongest, however when I look below the star, I don’t gain much improvement from direct vision.

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I wouldn't be calling a mag 10 star "big", but it should be visible in a fairly modest scope ( 8" F:10 for example )

An 8" scope like my C8 can go down to mag 14 (I have spotted mag 13 galaxies with mine on good nights). Mag 10 is 40 times brighter. Under good conditions, a 10x50 could pick it up. As it is at low altitude, a 70mm is probably needed.

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ColB

ColB

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Quick off topic sort of question, How long did it take for that supernova light to reach us here on earth? Since M101 is 23m LY away? how long in our time did it take?

I'm not sure what you mean, surely the light took 23m years or am I missing the point of your question?

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CamoCustom

CamoCustom

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23m light years away is a distance right? So how long in our Time(not distance) did the light take to get here to earth. Like, from the sun, the light takes about 8 minutes to reach us on earth.

I guess LY being a measure of distance, is making my brain trying to figure out time of that distance....I am just a bit confused.

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ColB

ColB

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23m light years away is a distance right? So how long in our Time(not distance) did the light take to get here to earth. Like, from the sun, the light takes about 8 minutes to reach us on earth.

I guess LY being a measure of distance, is making my brain trying to figure out time of that distance....I am just a bit confused.

The answer is 23 million years. Yes Light Year is a distance - the distance light travels in a year. So it takes one year for light to travel 1 LY, and 23 million years for light to travel 23m LY. You could say the Sun is 8 light minutes away in distance because it takes light 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to us.

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mjpfc

mjpfc

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They are saying that by the 5th Sept it was mag 10.2 and appeared to be slowing right down and therefore near peak brightness.

If this lousy cloud does not move in the next 4 days or so then most of us may be in trouble seeing much.

Hey Ho

Mick IOW

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661-pete

661-pete

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The answer is 23 million years. Yes Light Year is a distance - the distance light travels in a year. So it takes one year for light to travel 1 LY, and 23 million years for light to travel 23m LY. You could say the Sun is 8 light minutes away in distance because it takes light 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to us.

Just been wondering, curious to know what the Earth was like 23 million years ago. Did some googling. Well, the dinosaurs were long gone but, although there were primates about, there were no signs of the primitive ape-men that might have evolved into good old H. sap. - those didn't arrive until millions of years later. The planet was roamed by giant pig-like, rhino-like, horse-like, and elephant-like mammals browsing the forests and savannahs. Oh, and there were early cats and dogs to prey on them. Just food for thought.

Back to SN2011fe: there seem to be breaks in the cloud tonite though not sure if I'll get a view to the north, also it's a waxing gibbous moon which won't help. I don't expect to see much. There's been rather a lot of unrealistic hype on the news websites, lots of folks are going to get a big disappointment... :)

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Astrosurf

Astrosurf

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I've not had time to read all the posts so if anyone else has asked this, sorry! I've got M101 in my view through my 8" but cannot see anything (light pollution here) so I've been taking pics. I've got 20 at 30 secs each as any more than that and the light pollution is impossible. I'm a newbie so I hope my setting of ISO 800 is OK! I can see a faint pale blob in the pics, very small, and nothing else. Will stacking help?

Any advice on snapping this thing?

Alexxx

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junior

junior

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I think i have seen the SN tonight however as I have not seen one before I could have just been looking at a bright star :)

If anyone has managed an image or two it would be great to see them just to confirm that I did or did not see it.

If I did I found it quite easily after getting my bearings from the coords given and using Stellarium.

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