Super Nova

[Mike JW]

What to do when the moon is bright and high - go Super Nova spotting.

SN 2021J in galaxy NGC 4414 is about mag 14.8 and a type 1a. It is the obvious bright spot just below the core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SN 2021gmj is a type 2 in NGC 3310 and is about mag 15 and lies in the spiral arm to the south (below the core).  NGC 3310 is also Arp 217. The right hand shot is from about a year ago as a comparison. I was using the C11 and achieved a much better shot due to the lack of moonlight. Last night I kept the sub time very short to try to counteract the washed out effect due to the intense moonlight but I lost details in doing this.

 

 

Mike

[Martin Meredith]

I've come to the conclusion it is always worth doing EEVA if the skies are clear. I tend to avoid galaxies and fainter PNs in such conditions but I can see that when they contain a recent SN that's another matter. It's interesting to see your comparison with last year's image to see what is being lost. In the case of NGC 4414 you're still pulling out a lot of interesting stuff in spite of the moon.

Open clusters are absolutely fine with quite bright moonlight I find, even in colour. I was out last night and looked at quite a few, mainly within the same quadrant of the sky as the moon (which was so high anyway it hardly made much difference which way I pointed the scope). I was surprised also to find that some patches of nebulosity came through quite well. I'll post a few pics later.

Martin

[Mike JW]

Skies last night were wonderfully steady but there was a milkiness about them which with the moonlight makes for poor, soft views. I suspect that if the skies had been more transparent then more detail would have been captured.

Mike

[Mike JW]

Last night (05/04/21) I was testing the ASI 174MM/Jocular using my STF 7" scope.

SN type 1 - 2021 fco is to be found in Leo - UGC 5801 and is faint at mag 17.8. Quite a challenge for a small scope. I find that the high noise/amp glow of this camera does not lend itself to a black background but the grey background as per the shot below works fine.

Mike