11 Apr Supernovae NGC4277, NGC4568, NGC5157, NGC5635, NGC5258

[alanjgreen]

Date: Saturday 11th April 2205-2350hrs

Scope: 20” f3.6 Lukehurst Dob with Paracorr (fl = 2089mm & f4.1).

Night Vision: PVS-14 with Photonis 4g INTENS.

Eyepieces: Plossl 55mm (f2 x38), Panoptic 35mm (f3 x60), Panoptic 27mm (f4 x77), DeLite 18.2mm (f5.8 x115).

Moon: 0%

 

Background

 

Last Nights Results.

I managed to get a couple of hours outside last night. The first hour had decent conditions (M61 showed some lovely spiral arms as I warmed up) but during the second hour conditions steadily deteriorated until I gave up...

 

1. NGC4277/SN AT2020ftl = SUCCESS

I was able to see the bright SN in all my Night Vision eyepiece combinations (x38 thru x115) but it was only separated from the core in the 27mm and 18.2mm eyepieces

 

2. NGC4568 (Siamese Twins)/SN2020fqv = SUCCESS

I was able to see the bright SN in all my Night Vision eyepiece combinations (x38 thru x115), probably the best view was with the 27mm eyepiece. Although it was clearly seen at x38 with the 55mm eyepiece.

 

 

3. NGC5157/SN2020ees = FAIL

I was not able to see anything other than the core in this galaxy.

 

4. NGC5635/SN2020fcw = SUCCESS

With the 18.2mm DeLite (x115), I was able to see two dots in the galaxy disk. At first they appeared side-by-side (9 o'clock to 3 o'clock) but with time they seemed more 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock slightly angled.

 

5. NGC5258/SN2020dko = not enough time!

I had found the galaxy and orientated myself to my pre-match sketch but the two galaxies were hardly visible as that part of the sky had not rotated around to my drop-down side and the shed wall was taking away most of the light plus the conditions were deteriorating as well.

 

I ran back though the previous SN one more time, but they were all much harder as the sky had gone.

Still, more clear nights next week so look forward to that.

Alan

Edited April 12, 2020 by alanjgreen

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well done Alan a great report.  Certainly a 20" with night vision does the trick. With clear skies forecast I look forward to further reports.

[Bill S]

Alan - an interesting set of reports. Thanks for sharing them with us.

[mdstuart]

With your kit you should be able to discover your own supernova.

Imagine Alan 2020 supernova 1 in the designations.

Mark

Stare at NGC 6946 each nght and just wait might work...

 

 

[Mike JW]

Always enjoy seeing what you achieve with your set up. Mike