Nova in Cas

[Pixies]

Had a look tonight in the Vixen 80.

I'd say it's between H220819 (mag 6.6) and HD220057 (mag 6.9), nearer the former. So 6.7

[Paul M]

Had my first look at this in a good while last night. I thought it would be well on its way to obscurity by now. Still looking good though.

Running it through ASTAP photometry give a mag og 7.7, but I'm consistently inconsistent with this so pick a number, any number...

Anyway, I'm here for the ride not the numbers. Still looking good. Mak 127 and ASI178 Camera 30 x 30 sec. Very small field.

[John]

First clear sky for a few days.

With the 100mm refractor at 37.5x I think it's dimmed a little since I last observed it. I'd estimate it tonight at around magnitude 7.3 or so ?

 

[PeterW]

Heads up, seems to be brightening again… much more interesting that the one in Hercules!

Peter

[Pixies]

2 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Heads up, seems to be brightening again… much more interesting that the one in Hercules!

Peter

Yep - noticed that just now. Just need a clear night!

[JeremyS]

[John]

On holiday currently so not observing but I will be interested to see where it has got to when I'm back at the eyepiece

[John]

First clear sky for some time here for me (well, clear in patches anyway) so I grabbed my 11x70 binoculars for a quick look at Nova Cas. In between the clouds I came up with an estimate of around magnitude 7.0 tonight. That was handheld though so might be a bit off

The thing is still clearly visible in bigger binoculars at least.

[Captain Scarlet]

I kust went out to get a reading on the basis it’s been clearish all evening. Totally clouded over. Seemingly for weeks now very frustrating.

M

[John]

10 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

I kust went out to get a reading on the basis it’s been clearish all evening. Totally clouded over. Seemingly for weeks now very frustrating.

M

It's been rubbish here for over a week as well. I've been under what can be really dark skies for the past week on holiday. Nice days but cloudy nights so no observing possible. Last night was the first time I've seen stars for about 10 days and even then they were smallish clear patches

[bish]

Frustrating the weather is so bad. Should pick it up in my 15x70 bins.

[JeremyS]

Updated light curve from the BAA VSS database. Still about mag 7.5, so still a binocular object:

[Captain Scarlet]

I’ve just relocated to SW Ireland, and night no 2, last night was, at 2am, suddenly clear. I know exactly where the Nova is, having found it countless times. But last night, I couldn’t find it. There were just too many stars: even 4 Cas and its parallelogram were drowned out and impossible to recognize. I’m going to have to get a chart and re-do the star-hop differently. Nice problem to have I guess.

[JeremyS]

Just seen the AAVSO light curve posted:

[John]

I had a quick look last night with the 130mm frac. It looked similar to the last time I saw it - still mag 7 ish I think.

 

[Captain Scarlet]

In my new location I finally found it again. LP in my area in London (at mag 19.1 level) was quite useful as binocular-limiting of 7-8ish made the Nova and its signposts quite easy to find. Now having relocated to a mag 21.8 place, my easy signposts got totally crowded out. This time I used 8x32 binoculars to limit my view as my "starter-for-ten", then moved up to 15x56s. The Nova looks very similar in brightness at the moment to HD 220770, which according to SIMBAD is 7.85.

But the star of the show was M52, which I've not detected before despite really trying from London knowing exactly where it was, and tonight it was perfectly evident even in my 8x32 bins; but extremely prominent in the 15x56s. M52 a "tick" for me, courtesy of Nova Cas.

[John]

I don't think I'd ever done more than quickly glanced at M52 before Nova Cas showed up. Over the past 4 months I've probably observed it more than most other DSO's !

It is a delicate and pleasing cluster. Quite dense, once you start to pick out it's faint stars.

 

 

[Pixies]

21.8! Nice.

Yep. I don't think I'll ever have to look up the location of M52, or the Bubble nebula - if ever I try astrophotography!

 

[Pixies]

Managed a quick view with the 10x50 bins tonight. I haven't had a decent night for about 4 weeks now, it's in a completely different part of the sky!

Anyway, I appear to have missed both brightenings and it's a lot dimmer now. Needed a wee bit of averted vision to see it. I reckon it's around mag 8.

[bish]

I"m in Wales and had a clear sky at a fairly dark sky last night. M52 easily visible with 9x63 bins. Unfortunately my phone had died and so didn't have the chart to identify which star it was! Looking like two more clear nights though.

[Captain Scarlet]

1 hour ago, bish said:

9x63 bins

Bushnell?

[bish]

They"re  Celestron.  Prefer them to my 15x70 Celestron.

[Pixies]

Very clear tonight. Had the dob out, so headed over to the nova at the end of the session.

A little brighter tonight. Similar to HD220770 (star near M52) but a wee bit brighter. I'd say 7.5

Edited July 17, 2021 by Pixies

[Malpi12]

On 15/07/2021 at 02:19, Pixies said:

I appear to have missed both brightenings 

 

10 hours ago, Pixies said:

A little brighter tonight. 

Thanks for the report&headsup

I have just looked at the AAVSO plot and it looks like it may be preparing to have another 'burp' ! Was cloudy here last night, fingers crossed for tonight

AAVSO visual data :-

 

[bish]

I did manage to get out with the chart. Transparency wasn't great. I didn't make an estimate. Used my 9x63 bins.