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New supernovae targets to observe


davhei

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Thanks for the 'heads up' Alan - a great report. I noticed that there was a supernova but did not appreciate there were 3.

Thanks also to @davheifor his diagram and that he observed it using a 10" Dob.

It looks like we might have a clear spell tonight so I might have a go at SN2021hiz especially as its mag is 13.2

Thanks gain both.

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3 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Thanks for the 'heads up' Alan - a great report. I noticed that there was a supernova but did not appreciate there were 3.

Thanks also to @davheifor his diagram and that he observed it using a 10" Dob.

It looks like we might have a clear spell tonight so I might have a go at SN2021hiz especially as its mag is 13.2

Thanks gain both.

Me too. "Clear Outside" forecasts a few clear hours later this evening.

Thanks @alanjgreen and @davhei :thumbright:

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I've managed to see supernova SN 2021 hiz this evening with my 12 inch dobsonian. I used Stellarium plus @davhei's very helpful sketch to nail the position.

My (inexperienced) estimate is that the SN is very close to the same brightness as a nearby magnitude 13 star. Once I was dark adapted the SN was reasonably easy to spot at 122x. At 199x I was just getting suggestions of the edge on host galaxy IC 3322 and it's orientation relative to the star field. I think IC 3322 lies at a distance of around 81 million light years ?

The somewhat brighter galaxy NGC 4365 is in the same field of view as the SN at 122x. 

Pleased to see this - I think it's my 12th SN ?

Thanks to @alanjgreen for the heads up :thumbright:

 

 

Edited by John
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9 hours ago, John said:

I've managed to see supernova SN 2021 hiz this evening with my 12 inch dobsonian. I used Stellarium plus @davhei's very helpful sketch to nail the position.

My (inexperienced) estimate is that the SN is very close to the same brightness as a nearby magnitude 13 star. Once I was dark adapted the SN was reasonably easy to spot at 122x. At 199x I was just getting suggestions of the edge on host galaxy IC 3322 and it's orientation relative to the star field. I think IC 3322 lies at a distance of around 81 million light years ?

The somewhat brighter galaxy NGC 4365 is in the same field of view as the SN at 122x. 

Pleased to see this - I think it's my 12th SN ?

Thanks to @alanjgreen for the heads up :thumbright:

 

 

Well done John. Last night the weather forecast was showing rain or snow later so I decided to give it a miss. Having NGC 4365 in the same FOV is certainly going to help so if I get a clear spell I will attempt to see the SN.

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Last night I went looking for the Super Nova in IC3322A using the 12" Dob which has a 80mm finderscope to help with star hopping.

I started at the bottom of Virgo at the star Eta (Zaniah) which has the star 13 close by. Moving up you reach star 16 and slightly above is M61. Moving upwards and slightly right you come to NGC 4261 and then to the left is NGC 4339. To view these 3 galaxies I was using my 20mm Myriad, 13mm Ethos and 9mm Myriad eyepieces.

I knew that when I reached NGC 4365 - @John had already stated that IC3322A was in the same FOV. I had already checked out the Stellarium Premier on my tablet (see attached) and that there were 3 mag 8/9 stars to the left which were easily seen in my finderscope.

I could easily see the SN and comparing the star nearby at mag 12.8 it look very similar in brightness. I could not make out the galaxy despite using an observing hood.

The attached screen is just over a degree - similar to my Ethos 13mm. If you have the NGC 4365 on one side and the 3 stars on the other - IC3322A is in the middle.

Super Nova IC3322a.jpg

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I managed to catch SN 2021hiz last night. It was quite an easy catch using SkySafari and then @davhei's excellent sketch to confirm it. I couldn't see the host galaxy but NGC 4365 really added to the view. I did have a go at the SN in NGC 5018 too but didn't manage this one. The core is quite bright so it was beyond my skills to pick out the mag 14 SN next to it.

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  • Stu changed the title to New supernovae targets to observe
3 hours ago, John said:

Yes, I've just been looking at it with my 12 inch dobsonian and it seems around magnitude 13 still.

 

Agree. Observed it this evening and estimated the visual magnitude at 13.0. Possibly slighty brighter.

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Observed SN 2021hpr in Draco with a 10” dob this evening near zenith. It’s on the edge of NGC 3147 which makes for quite a striking view.

Estimated the visual magnitude at 13.9.

49E04068-1FEB-4A60-9752-95A8D9AF6BDA.jpeg

Edited by davhei
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6 hours ago, davhei said:

Observed SN 2021hpr in Draco with a 10” dob this evening near zenith. It’s on the edge of NGC 3147 which makes for quite a striking view.

Estimated the visual magnitude at 13.9.

49E04068-1FEB-4A60-9752-95A8D9AF6BDA.jpeg

Another excellent sketch, @davhei ! Looking forward to having a go at this one :) 

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4 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Another excellent sketch, @davhei ! Looking forward to having a go at this one :) 

Thanks!

I have long thought that magnitudes beyond 14 were really hard to reach given my dark site sky conditions, but I was surprised the mag 14.2 reference star was quite readily visible at x200.

I attribute it to observing near zenith, really makes a significant difference as far as depth goes.

Conditions weren’t even that great with thin haze reflecting the light pollution from Stockholm a bit.

Turned the telescope to SN 2021hiz afterwards. Great to see two SNs in the same session. Really enjoyed this! 

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@Littleguy80 in fact, the record depth with my 10” has been the Draco quasar PG 1634+706 that I recall you and I pursued two years ago in another thread.

That was really pushing it. Made quite an impression that one.

Edited by davhei
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52 minutes ago, davhei said:

I attribute it to observing near zenith, really makes a significant difference as far as depth goes.

Exactly right. I've noticed the same thing. I tried for another SN earlier in the week that was much lower and around mag 14. That was beyond me despite being at the dark site. 

47 minutes ago, davhei said:

in fact, the record depth with my 10” has been the Draco quasar PG 1634+706 that I recall you and I pursued two years ago in another thread.

Yes, I have fond memories of this. If I recall correctly, Stephan @Nyctimene set the challenge for that Quasar. It was great fun :) 

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Thanks for the "heads up" on SN 2021 hpr @davhei :thumbright:

I shall have a go at that one with my 12 inch dob at the next opportunity.

The faintest point source that I've managed to see with that scope is magnitude 14.7 so I should be in with a chance.

I also agree re: observing close to a zenith for very faint targets. As an object gets closer to the horizon atmospheric extinction takes it's toll.

Stellarium gives an estimate of the impact of this on an objects brightness.

 

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Just in from what I’ve named “Nova Night”. Started with the Nova in Cassiopeia. Still holding it’s brightness well. I could see straight away that the transparency was very good. Next was another visit to the Supernova in NGC 3322A which seems to be maintaining brightness well too. Finally onto SN2021 hpr in Draco. The host galaxy, NGC 3147, is quite bright so that gave a good anchor for searching. At 120x, I got glimpses but wasn’t totally convinced. Went to 240x and got it much more clearly. It was exactly as per @davhei’s sketch. One of the nicest SN’s I’ve observed with the host galaxy being so bright and clear next to it. Really pleased. Lots of other nice targets observed. Once again, thanks to @davhei for the heads up and superb sketch. 

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Great stuff Neil - I found the transparency good tonight as well.

Just the one SN for me tonight - SN 2021hiz but I was just using my 100mm refractor.

I will have a look at 2021hpr another night - sounds a good one !

 

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7 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Just in from what I’ve named “Nova Night”. Started with the Nova in Cassiopeia. Still holding it’s brightness well. I could see straight away that the transparency was very good. Next was another visit to the Supernova in NGC 3322A which seems to be maintaining brightness well too. Finally onto SN2021 hpr in Draco. The host galaxy, NGC 3147, is quite bright so that gave a good anchor for searching. At 120x, I got glimpses but wasn’t totally convinced. Went to 240x and got it much more clearly. It was exactly as per @davhei’s sketch. One of the nicest SN’s I’ve observed with the host galaxy being so bright and clear next to it. Really pleased. Lots of other nice targets observed. Once again, thanks to @davhei for the heads up and superb sketch. 

Well done! Sounds like a really good evening. Wasn’t it just amazing to see the SN on the outskirts of a relatively visible galaxy? Makes you appreciate the brightness of the thing, seeing the galactic core and getting hints of the areas outside it.

Glad the sketch was useful!

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Thanks to @davhei's heads up and sketch and also the info that @Mark at Beaufort linked me to on the CN forum, I'm pleased to say that I have managed to observe SN 2021 hpr in NGC 3147 with my 12 inch dobsonian tonight.

The conditions are OK but a little milkier than ideal here. Fortunately the part of Draco where NGC 3147 is located (the tail of the dragon I suppose :smiley:) is right up towards the zenith so I could see reasonably faint stars despite the transparency not being quite 100%. It's very close to the constellation boarder with Ursa Major.

The galaxy itself is not too difficult to locate using the brighter stars in the rectangle of Ursa Minor as initial pointers and also the 2 brightest stars at the tail end of Draco. NGC 3147 showed as a reasonably bright smudge of light at around 100x considering it's 130 million light year distance.

I then started to incrementally increase the magnification teasing out the faint triangle of stars that the galaxy sits in (line of sight-wise of course). First the mag 12.6 star, then the mag 13.6 one and when I teased out the mag 14.2 star I thought I might be in with a chance of seeing the supernova.

By this time I was pretty well dark adapted and the magnification was 338x. I do find that these higher magnifications help tease out the fainter stars.

A point of light was now showing at the correct location and, as there are no other stars brighter than mag 17 around that spot, it had to be SN 2021 hpr. In terms of visibility I felt that the SN was similar to the mag 14.2 star but possibly just a little easier to pick out now and then ?. Certainly less bright than the mag 13.6 star nearby. I'd go for a solid mag 14.0 but I'm not the best at comparing these faint points of light.

I'm pleased to have got this one as it is one of the fainter supernovae that I've observed. Earlier I had also had another look at SN 2021 hiz in Virgo so seeing two of these events in one session is a treat :icon_biggrin:

 

 

Edited by John
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