Bright supernova discovered at mag 14.9 in NGC1566 "The Spanish Dancer Galaxy" in the constellation Dorado. At 1am this beautiful galaxy will be about 30 degrees above the SE horizon.
An early morning object but worth the wait. Should make a great visual and imaging target, over to you folks.
Details below from the Bright Supernova Page at http://www.supernova.thistlethwaites.com/snimages/
ASASSN-14ha, ATEL 6460 discovered 2014/09/10.290 by All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN)
Found in NGC 1566 at R.A. = 04h20m01s.41, Decl. = -54°56'17".0
Located 8".7 east and 1".0 south of the center of NGC 1566 (Discovery image)
Mag 14.6:9/10, Type II (z=0.005017) (References: ATEL 6461, 6466, 6467; SN 2010el)
I had a crack at this last night - its quite close to the central bulge of the galaxy so it will be a challenge to process. But that's half the fun isn't it.
I'll post some pics at the weekend or sooner if I get some free time
I've made a little progress - but I need heaps more data. Because I end up imaging this early in the morning, the FWHM of the stars is blown out. So this isn't great - but its a start.
This is about 30 minutes of Lum, 40 mins G and B and only 15 minutes of R.
I resisted the temptation to push the stretch to bring out more of the spiral arms - if I did so, the SN would be lost in the core. You can see how blue the SN is compared to the foreground star immediately to its right.
All going well, I'll collect some better data tonight so stay tuned.
Taken from Coona with PW CDK12.5 with STX16803. RGB is binned x2. All subs 300 seconds
Question, would this SN still have been visible this last Monday night, 20th of September?
Yes, I tried for it in the 16",but with a starlike nucleus and the star it is sandwiched in between makes it almost impossible for I would say any scope under say 20".
The close in star would make it very difficult to decide if you are observing the SN.
Cheers
Thanks Ron. I had a look for it on Monday night, and like you, I couldn't make it out. Wasn't sure if it was still visible then.
Any thoughts about the SN being visible this weekend? If I can make it out bush this weekend I'll be chasing up 1566 all the same, SN or not - what a stunning galaxy!!! Really breath taking for me, If it were in any other constellation, it would be a showpiece on its own. Shame it needs to share the same bit of sky as the LMC...
Here's the sketch I did of 1566. I've posted a little write up on this on my blog: Galaxy NGC 1566
Last edited by mental4astro; 25-09-2014 at 11:41 AM.
Alex, the nucleus of the galaxy is given at around 12 mag,the star that the supernova is sandwiched in between is 14.6 the Supernova is 14.5.
It was only discovered on the tenth of this month, and does not seem to have brightened much at all.
It will be a very difficult SN to observe visually because of the above constraints.
Best of luck anyway.
Cheers
I can assure you that it is a bugger to image too.
I am planning a few early mornings on this one as its such a beautiful galaxy - sadly, I need to suppress the core and spiral arms to bring out the SN. I might do 2 versions - one to feature the SN and the other to present the galaxy
Supernova ASASSN-14ha still going strong, Oct 30th
In decent conditions, I managed to get 20 minutes of subs on NGC1566, and was happy to be able to clearly resolve the supernova between the nucleus and the neighbouring star. Estimated at roughly mag 15.0.
A pretty galaxy, but I'd not like to try and resolve the SN any closer to the nucleus!
20 minutes of 5-minute subs, 150mm f/5 Newtonian, EOS 60D, ISO640.