Nova in Cas

[Stu]

Just wondering if we could put together an SGL light curve for it? If people post up dates and their brightness estimates I could graph them to see what we get?

[Davey-T]

Haven't even managed to image it yet where it's buried in light pollution 😧

Dave

[Paul M]

29 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just wondering if we could put together an SGL light curve for it? If people post up dates and their brightness estimates I could graph them to see what we get?

Ah yes, a nice bit of science!

My estimates are: Brightish, same, same, same, bit fainter, bit brighter and most recently; WOW! Don't have any dates. 🤣

More a swerve than a curve...

[PeterW]

… no peeking at the AAVSO curve!!!

Peter

[Stu]

I’ll run through this thread and put together all the obs from it and see what we get.

[Stu]

Here you go, a bit of SGL Citizen Science for you 👍👍. Done as a line and a scatter graph, scatter probably better I reckon. Will keep adding from this thread. If anyone else has any past data not already posted, please put it up. I’m taking a few liberties where people have said ‘a bit brighter than’ etc but it gives a reasonable curve I think. Looks like either the weather was bad or we lost interest in the middle bits! 🤣

[PeterW]

Eughterrr…. Flip the Y axis…. Brighter being higher…. Messing with my brain! 😉 

Peter

[Stu]

Just now, PeterW said:

Eughterrr…. Flip the Y axis…. Brighter being higher…. Messing with my brain! 😉 

Peter

Ha ha, yes, of course. Will do.

[Stu]

Better?

Google docs didn’t seem to want to play that way so had to move it to Excel.

[PeterW]

Oo excel…. The Swiss Army knife of numbers….

Peter

[Stu]

@PeterW and I concurred that the nova is at mag 5.5 tonight, basically similar brightness to HR8894. Any other viewings tonight?

[John]

Solid cloud and rain all day here

 

 

[Voyager 3]

15 hours ago, John said:

Solid cloud and rain all day here , just for Stu giving this idea . I wonder what it would be like to , if everyone gives their magnitude estimates . 

 

 

 

[JeremyS]

15 hours ago, Stu said:

Any other viewings tonight?

I had it at 5.6 on 12 May at 23:29

[JeremyS]

Here's a plot from the BAA Variable Star Section database. Looks like it is past the peak, BUT this type of nova might have a second (or third) peak, Keep watching!

[Stu]

Thanks @JeremyS. This is where I’ve got to with the SGL version. We seem to have more of a dip before the recent rise than the BAA one, but interesting none the less.

[Captain Scarlet]

I had it at an estimated 5.6 last night, 2322. A smudge dimmer IMO than HR8894

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

I had it at an estimated 5.6 last night, 2322. A smudge dimmer IMO than HR8894

You are on the chart Magnus 👍.

Last night was weird. I viewed in binoculars and felt similar to you, that it was a touch dimmer than HR8894. Then through a scope I couldn’t convince myself I could see any difference. Still not sure, but I logged myself at 5.5. Would be interest to see what a proper measurement comes out at.

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

You are on the chart Magnus 👍.

Last night was weird. I viewed in binoculars and felt similar to you, that it was a touch dimmer than HR8894. Then through a scope I couldn’t convince myself I could see any difference. Still not sure, but I logged myself at 5.5. Would be interest to see what a proper measurement comes out at.

You can other data here: https://app.aavso.org/webobs/results/?star=000-BNX-642&num_results=200

as usual some scatter in estimates as people have different eye sensitivity, observing conditions etc. You will see some CCD V measures in there too. These have tended to be a bit fainter than visual. The nova is reddish (you can see Blue filtered measurements in the BAA VSS plot above come out fainter)

[JeremyS]

I’ve plotted just the visual AAVSO data since discovery until today here:

[bish]

So annoyed that at the weather.  Hoping for a break in the clouds,

[Stu]

27 minutes ago, bish said:

So annoyed that at the weather.  Hoping for a break in the clouds,

Yep, frustrating. Might get lucky tonight, though knackered after a 6am start to get my lad back from Uni....

[John]

53 minutes ago, bish said:

So annoyed that at the weather.  Hoping for a break in the clouds,

Rather amazingly it's quite clear here at the moment. Very much against what is forecast though so I doubt it will last

[Pixies]

3 minutes ago, John said:

Rather amazingly it's quite clear here at the moment. Very much against what is forecast though so I doubt it will last

Yep - same here. Hoping for a few quick views tonight - even if only with the bins. We haven't had clear skies for weeks now. April was fantastic, but May has been pretty disappointing. 

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, John said:

Rather amazingly it's quite clear here at the moment. Very much against what is forecast though so I doubt it will last

Looking at the satellite I reckon we should all get at least some clear patches, in between the cloud and rain showers which are marching eastwards. Grab and go will be order of the day (or night) I reckon!