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Supernova SN2011b? Or not?

Tim

By Tim
in The Astro Lounge

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Tim

Tim

Posted
Posted

Tried to get a piccy of this last night, but I had a long focal length OTA mounted, and had trouble finding the SN and associated galaxy even with goto, as the timing, with clouds bearing down fast on my location, just happened to have all the decent SYNCing stars on the opposite side of the flip.

At any rate, I found this galaxy, in the right region, and took a quick shot. Can anybody confirm/deny that it's the one?

Thanks ;)

Tim

post-14037-13387752518_thumb.jpg

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lukebl

lukebl

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That's most definitely it. Here's an image from another site to prove it (and I think yours is a better image!). Well done! Looks nice and bright in your image. Wish I could see it from my location

sn2011B.png

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Tim

Tim

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If the sky ever clears again, i might have a proper go at this. I accidentally plucked the wire out of my filter wheel and had to manually click thru to the IR filtered Lum filter, so it was problematic and I didnt persevere for more thane one frame, but it looks like the galaxy has a wide berth which puts the SN well within it.

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george7378

george7378

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I would love to try and visually observe this with my 10" Sky-Watcher - what are my chances? How long will it stick around? Thanks.

That's a great image too - I would be so proud to take a picture of an exploding star in a distant galaxy. Aren't supernovae beautiful?

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acey

acey

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Excellent pics. I observed it visually with my 12" dob on Friday night, sky brightness 21.5 mpsas (equiv. limiting mag 6.3). Both the galaxy and the supernova were bright and easily visible (with direct vision) at low power; the galaxy showed a bright inner region and fainter outer halo, with the supernova just beyond the edge of the visible halo. At high power (x250) the supernova appeared to be almost touching the halo but not quite - showing that the outermost part of the galaxy was too faint to see (and is too faint to show up in many CCD images). Definitely worth a go with smaller instruments in brighter skies.

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perrin6

perrin6

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Had trouble recognizing the star pattern in your image at first Tim. I was looking for two 14th mag stars that I saw visually under and to the right of the galaxy - then I realised the image is reversed vertically ! Good photo and shows even the outer halo that the supernova lies in.

When looking at it with my 13", the SN looked bluish to me - anyone else see any colour or was it an optical illusion of some kind?

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acey

acey

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Arms? It has variously been classified S0 (i.e. no spiral arms), SB0 (barred, no arms) and was catalogued by Arp as having "amorphous spiral arms", i.e. not very distinct. It is also described as a "ring galaxy". Some images do capture the amorphous spiral structure of the outer halo, e.g. this one:

NGC 2655

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Certainly an odd beast. Almost looks like it has been in a fight and had bits ripped off.

I had tow other local astronomers transfixed at the view the other evening. It certainly has been the highlight of 2011 so far for me.

Mark

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