NGC 2655 and SN2011b

[Andrew*]

I went out to find this one last night in the 12" dob. Took me a while, star-hopping from Polaris to HIP47193, but once there it was very clearly visible, positioned between two mag. ~7 stars. Nestling on the edge of the galaxy there was clearly a stellar point. Zooming in with my Baader Hyperion zoom to 150x showed the best view. To me the supernova appeared between magnitude 13.6 and 14.0.

I would describe the galaxy as fairly elongated, with a very bright small core. I would definitely agree with comments that it has a high surface brightness and appeared bright through my ~mag. 5.0 skies and 12" dob.

I had to make a sketch to record the event. Unfortunately I didn't have my usual journal (there's always something you leave inside:rolleyes:), but I made use of the black pad and white pencil I had. Two versions attached, one labelled with magnitudes from Calsky.

Hope you like...

Andrew

[Doc]

Lovely sketch Andrew, It's quite an achievement to capture a supernova especially when it's 71 million light years away.

[JAO]

Andrew

Excellent observation and great sketch indeed. If it clears up here in Norfolk I am keen to get out and see this, fired up by your observation!

Thanks for sharing

Adrian

[Mark at Beaufort]

A very nice sketch Andrew. I also was able to view this SN last night. I estimated that it was a little brighter than some of its surrounding mag13/14 stars.

However, its great to view a SN

Mark

[Andrew*]

Thank you for your comments!

Mark, I think I underestimated the brightness a bit. It's supposed to be about mag. 13.3 at the moment I believe.

Andrew

[DarkerSky]

Brilliant sketch. It's a real treat to get this in the eyepiece. You've captured it well.

[Andrew*]

Thanks DS. Yes, there is something special about viewing a supernova...

I made a larger sketch as well to show the view at 182x with a 10mm Zeiss ortho. In this view there were quite a few more stars visible, but I didn't take the time to plot them as the main intention was to show the galaxy better.

Andrew