Nova Delphinus 2013

[JamesF]

Just about picked it out naked-eye myself. It's tricky though with the Moon still out and about.

James

[bish]

Just been out and seen it in the bins. Probably naked eye if my glasses weren't in the car. Looked around the same as zeta delphinus to my eyes (4.6)

[John]

Nice a clear here still

The Nova is easy to spot with an 8x50 finder. Looks like a fairly normal mag 4/5 star in the scope. I could not discern any strong colour / hue other than white viewed at 51x and 265x with my 12" dob.

Forms a triangle with a couple of slightly dimmer stars in the finder which makes finding it a bit easier.

[r3i]

Here's my quick effort: 5*2mins using AA8RC + CCDT67 +QHY8. Bias & BPM with a bit of stretching

[John]

I can just get it with a naked eye. A brightish satellite just went right through the area.

[Ptarmigan]

Evening all,

Well this makes a change, something new to look for that is easy to find, a clear(-ish) sky and no domestic duties to distract !

Like Andrew a few posts back I too was viewing it and 29Vul with 10x50, a little thin cloud drifting thro' made comparison difficult, one moment it looked a smdigin brighter than 29Vul(mag 4.8) and the next moment a little less bright, so in my notes I put it down as "about 4.8" !

Will try again if the sky improves (fingers xxing) and the moon less prominent , ,

Good luck with your skies.

[DazC]

Bagged it!

My first nova.

D.C

[andrew63]

A bit of a haze and by no means a black sky - but saw it visual - i'd still go nearer to mag 5 than 4.5 though.

andrew

[Scosmico]

The Nova is in an area poor of 4th mag stars to calibrate any estimation. Using 29 Vulp (4.8) and Gama Delphinis (4.25), I estimate 4.6 +/- 0.1.

I captured the Nova, the ISS pass and my LP frustation all in the same frame.

I manage to see it before the clouds using my binos. Also, (wishfullness?) on the limit of Manchester's naked eye.

[Ptarmigan]

Double success !

Persuaded swmbo (ake 'erindoors) to come out and have a look, we both got it with our unaided aged eyes !

The previous thin cloud has gone, an unusually perfect sky and I have to agree with Andrew that it is not as bright as 29Vul (AAVSO comparison 48)

Thank you cloud gods

especially so as I missed the previous Nova Del (which if memory serves only got to about mag6 ?? )

[Ptarmigan]

and looking at the AAVSO light curve it seems that it has already passed the peak

so no daylight "guest star" this time ! [ I was out looking at dusk, before even Vega was visible in the hope that it might have risen far and fast!!]

The AAVSO chart shows quite a spread of estimates ( like we have here) which seems odd given the close proximity of a comparison star of similar mag. (and colour) so I wonder what is it that we are finding different about it ???

[ArmyAirForce]

Here's mine. 23 minutes of 30 second subs, ISO 400 with darks and flats, from a Nikon D50 DSLR.

[Ptarmigan]

Nice one AAF ! What optics ?

is that a crop ? and/or do you have one showing it in context with 29Vul and Delphinus

[ArmyAirForce]

It is pretty much the whole sensor. Gear as in signature. SW200PDS.

[Ptarmigan]

It is pretty much the whole sensor. Gear as in signature. SW200PDS.

Thanks for info ( lots of folk dont keep their sigs up to date ! )

that is a superb pic of the nova.

Time for another look outside >>>>

[ArmyAirForce]

It's all clouds here now, so packing up for the night; but happy to have seen and captured it.

[Hanuman]

Here's the image I took of the nova just now. This is 13 x 30s exposures

Excellent shot. Closest to what I saw. Thank you for sharing this. Hope you don't mind but I've saved a copy of this to compare with my own notes and my sketch.

[DaveGarland]

Well I'm no expert on judging mags but I can confirm that it is most definitely a naked eye object from Bristol (albeit on the very edge) so its pretty bright. Ive had a great night, seeing an event like this is what it's all about for me. Off to bed happy

[Ptarmigan]

The AAVSO chart shows quite a spread of estimates ( like we have here) which seems odd given the close proximity of a comparison star of similar mag. (and colour) so I wonder what is it that we are finding different about it ???

The AAVSO visual light curve is falling rapidly towards mag5, so the answer to my puzzle might be the time at which we were doing our various estimates !

It looks from that curve that it peaked in the region of mag4.5

[AndyWB]

Well, at 2330 in Reading it looked brighter than 29 Vul to me - I would've estimated 4.5-4.6. Naked eye visible if you know where to look.

[iamjulian]

About 4.6 for me at 10:30pm. Few stray clouds but enough clear spells to get it with averted vision. I could see a couple of 4.4 stars directly so I would guess 4.6. grabbed lots of photos. Looking at the light curve on aavso this morning, I saw it at peak :-)

[andrew63]

I could not discern a difference in brightness between Vul 29 and the nova in the same binocular field - which would be around the 4.8. But a few observers have stated 4.5.

It's quite amazing to think you can see something like this with the naked eye !

andrew

[Stu]

Looks like I got it around peak too which is quite exciting :-). Great that so many of us had a chance to see it, quite unusual for the clouds to co-operate!

Stu

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

For those still looking, try.....

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/Bright-Nova-in-Delphinus-219631281.html

There is another link buried in the text...

http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Nova_in_Delphinus_PSA64.pdf

Now we need the skies to clear, No link for that!

Cheers

Adrian

[DaveGarland]

I took a slightly better picture later in the night so thought I'd post it. I thought I might crop it a bit but then decided I liked it out shining all the other stars in view.