18 Mar - New (well placed) Supernovae SN2019bic, SNAT2019bpc, SNAT2019bpu, SNAT2019bvt

[alanjgreen]

FOUR new (well placed above us in the UK) supernova as follows:

(1)    SN2019bic found in UGC5072 (12.7"E & 18.5"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 27/2/19, Mag 16.5

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html?#2019bic

 

(2)      SNAT2019bpc found in UGC7744 (3.8"E & 3.4"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 7/3/19, Mag 16.1  (now 16.0)

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html?#2019bpc

 

 

(3)    SNAT2019bpu found in UGC4551 (5"E & 0"S), Type ?? supernova discovered 6/3/19, Mag 14.3

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html?#2019bpu

 

(4)    SNAT2019bvt found in PGC061928 (4.2E & 2.3"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 17/3/19 (yesterday!), Mag 16.8

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html?#2019bvt

 

Just need the moon to go away!

Alan

[Davey-T]

Thanks for those Alan, weather has been so bad I haven't managed to catch any of the last lot you posted yet,

PS: Good to see you're still with us 

Dave

[Paul73]

Thanks for posting. I love a good SN hunt. The hunt is fun, but then pondering on what I’m witnessing is a special experience. 

Faint for my gear and sky, but I’ll be giving them a go!

Do you think that you can get them from town with your NV gear?

Paul

 

[alanjgreen]

3 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Thanks for posting. I love a good SN hunt. The hunt is fun, but then pondering on what I’m witnessing is a special experience. 

Faint for my gear and sky, but I’ll be giving them a go!

Do you think that you can get them from town with your NV gear?

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

The first two are "type 1a", and are both recently discovered. Type 1a have a larger brightness increase than other supernova types. We can expect them to get brighter than the quoted recent magnitude numbers. They are also good for a couple of months although the brightness fall-off is steep once maximum has been reached.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova

SN2019bic found in UGC5072 (12.7"E & 18.5"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 27/2/19, Mag 16.5

SNAT2019bpc found in UGC7744 (3.8"E & 3.4"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 7/3/19, Mag 16.1

 

The other common type is a "type II" (which is subdivided into II-P, II-L, II-N & II-B). These supernova gain less magnitude (from the starting point) compared to a type 1a but they have a longer "tail" and therefore survive for many months visually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_supernova

I just found this on wikipedia...

The last two columns are interesting, 60+19=79ish days for a type 1a & 30+150=180ish days for a type IIn.

 

SN2019bic found in UGC5072 (12.7"E & 18.5"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 27/2/19, Mag 16.5

- 27February + 19 days = 18 March reaches PEAK Luminosity (ish)

- 27February + 19 + 60 = 18 May fades to 10% luminosity

SNAT2019bpc found in UGC7744 (3.8"E & 3.4"N), Type 1a supernova discovered 7/3/19, Mag 16.1

- 7March + 19 days = 26 March reaches PEAK Luminosity (ish)

- 7March + 19 + 60 = 26 May fades to 10% luminosity

 

Do you think that you can get them from town with your NV gear?

Certainly, the NV kit is helping me with supernova where I am now able to get to see those around Mag 17 or less (a Mag 18 was beyond me recently), I have to use an 18.2mm eyepiece (giving x115) magnitude (any more means loss of brightness and less reach into the lower magnitudes) so this means that I may not be able to split them from the core if they are close-in. I could not get down to these levels of (lack of) brightness before when I was using traditional methods although the greater magnification I had available did give me more chance of splitting the close-in (to the galaxy core) supernova.

The mind boggles when you read the distance to these galaxies (which are calculated thanks to type 1a supernova (as I am sure you know)) and think that you are witnessing events that happened millions of years ago! - UGC7744 is 74 Million light years away. (I can't find a distance for UGC5072 so maybe this is the first type 1a and they can now measure it or maybe I need to look harder!)

- The other thing that makes my mind boggle is the sheer size of an explosion that lasts for months & months. Imagine the poor neighbouring stars/planets/moons being destroyed or changed forever! (Makes me think how lucky we are not too close to any giant stars).

I guess that you would need to factor in the loss of scope aperture (20" - 16") and then the change in SQM (mine is 21.6) using the same method of decreasing aperture/brighter skies in the same way we would now - although it may be less affected as NV responds well to star light (or supernova light in this case).

Alan

[AKB]

9 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

The mind boggles when you read the distance to these galaxies (which are calculated thanks to type 1a supernova (as I am sure you know)) and think that you are witnessing events that happened millions of years ago! - UGC7744 is 74 Million light years away.

Quite so!  For further galaxy boggling take a look at today’s APOD:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190319.html

[Paul73]

Indeed there is are some excellent APOD apps out there too.

Back to SN. I love the fact that you are observing a one off event, only a accessible to those few who brave the cold to search out a tiny point of light that is only visible for a few short weeks.

Paul

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Alas, these are beyond reach of my scope (visually, at least). The faintest I have managed is 14.0