A nova discovered on February 4th by two Japanese amateurs has brightened to magnitude 3.7 (as of last night) and is visible in the morning sky. Nicely timed for a New Moon weekend. See below for more details and a finder chart.
I've made a spotters map for Australia, the map is for around 2:20 am daylight saving time, the map is centered on the eastern horizon. The circle is the approximate field of view of 10x 50 binoculars, and the cross is the approximate location of the nova, at mag 3.7 (and rising??) it should stand out.
Cheers! Ian
Last edited by ian musgrave; 17-02-2007 at 04:54 PM.
A nova is a strong, rapid increase in the brightness of a star. The word comes from the latin for "new star," because often a star previously too dim to be seen with the naked eye can become the brightest object in the sky (besides the sun and the moon) when it becomes a nova.
Novae are now known to be caused by a star briefly re-igniting after having lain dormant for many years. Stars shine due to the nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, which process hydrogen into helium, releasing energy in the process. When the hydrogen is used up, sun-like stars slough off their outer envelopes, and become very small, very hot "white dwarfs." These white dwarfs are the inert cores of dead stars which have used up all of their available fuel. Now, stars often come in pairs, or "binaries," where two stars are in orbit around each other. If one of the stars in a binary is a white dwarf, and the other begins evolving into a red giant (a stage near the end of the life of a star, but before the white dwarf stage), the white dwarf can begin gravitationally attracting some of the gas from the atmosphere of the red giant to itself. Most of this gas will be hydrogen, and when the hydrogen reaches the surface of the incredibly hot white dwarf, it rapidly ignites, creating a large nuclear explosion on the surface of the star. This is what we see in our sky as a nova.
Quite distinctly orange & I would estimate its magnitude to be about 4, when compared to HIP81304, which sits on the other side of the star "Wei" or Epsilon Scorpius.
In fact I will go out on a limb & say that it is 4.2 !
Managed to get a clear night last night.
Took this image of the nova. It is the bright star almost dead center in the image.
Details Canon5DH, Canon 300mm F2.8L, 10x3min ISO 200, Hutech LPR filter.
North is to the left.
I have added an image of exactly the same region taken last July with an 85mm lens.
Cheers....have to set the alarm for some morning viewing
