That thread states it might have a yellow-white colour. I was looking tonight with my ED80 and found a yellow-white star just below and to the right of Altair. Do you suppose I saw it?
Having a look at Stellarium I may have seen "γ Sge - HIP 98337". I will probably have another look tomorrow.
I just came on here to start a thread about it and see I've been beaten . Good on you Psyke777.
Just observed it at 12.30am thru 10x60 binoculars.
Easy catch and very bright.
Heading off from Sagitta drawing a line straight into Delphinus as per Ian Musgrave's (astroblogger) binocular chart directions (see link- fantastic, easy guide!).
Look for a very bright arc shape asterism, sort of H shaped too, slew left to a blank spot, very bright yellow star which is the nova makes up a triangle asterism. To the left of that is two pairs of bright stars close to each other. The nova sits between these two pairs and the arc asterism.
Very intense and bright yellow it is, wow!
I"m sure Jeanette won't mind if I post this terrific pic she just took tonight of the nova. It's a widefield view so gives a great idea of where it is.
As you can see in the picture here, the asterisms I was talking about in my post above are clearly visible here.
There's lots of reports on facebook from people observing it last night putting it at mag.5 now. And that sounds spot on from when I observed it- I was looking for a much fainter star which threw me a bit. .
It looks as bright as some of those stars in that arc asterism I was talking about in my previous post.
Last night, people were seeing it naked eye from a dark site.
I just want to make sure I got the right star.
Tho I was quite satisfied I did as I plotted very carefully.
I'm confused with the images showing it as blue. I saw it as yellow.
Well I'm confident I got it in my pics, less confident I saw it with bins but it's possible.
In the pics it's a bluish/purple/pink but that is probably down to the lens.
I just look at it as it completes a row of 3 brighter double stars in a line, you can kind of see what I mean.
Here is just a start, I'm still going through the rest and want to process it better and find a good colour/size to add the tags on the pic but you get the idea.
It's a single 50 second sub, I have included the original and one I stacked with some darks but it came out even more noisy.
Also as you may see it's a shame I didn't get the meat of the other event in the pic, I wish I had seen it too as it looks a good 'un.
Also is that the Dumbell in there?
Hi Jarrod,
Thank you so much for the pics & trying to help me out. That first one in particular is helpful. I know exactly what you mean by the double stars too. And that's exactly where I saw it. But yellow.
Just read about this exciting event on apod, I can confirm naked eye sightings. It is clearly visible with the named eye from relatively dark sky with gibbous moon.
Awe inspiring to think that I have seen with my own 2 eyes the aftermath of the most violent explosion in the universe.
Not entirely sure, but I think I might have got it on my camera. Hard to tell because there is quite a bit of light pollution in the area where the star is, and my camera is just a point and shoot, but there is a bright spot that seems to correspond with the location when compared to the surrounding stars.
I have circled the part of the image where the star should be. Can't go out to take any more images as it has clouded over.
Last edited by alphamone; 16-08-2013 at 09:44 PM.
Reason: added image with hopeful nova capture.
I just want to make sure I got the right star.
Tho I was quite satisfied I did as I plotted very carefully.
I'm confused with the images showing it as blue. I saw it as yellow.
I visually compared it using 20x50 binoculars and AAVSO charts, and would put at slightly brighter than the 4.8 mag comparison star to the east of the star. My visual estimate would be 4.5 - 4.6 .
Also regarding colour I observe it as mostly a white colour.
Hi Orestis
I haven't seen you around for some time, great to hear from you!
You're observations were spot on. On the 15th it reached mag. 4.9
And last night (16th) had it at 4.5 (some say 4.4)! We were all excited on facebook as we were seeing it naked eye!
The latest light curve (17th) shows it has dropped down to 5. Bye bye star, was a brief visual appearance. So glad I nabbed it when I did.
Should still be a naked eye star from a dark site tho. But I couldn't believe I was seeing it despite the moon in the way and thru light pollution.
Regarding the colour- I asked around on facebook and people (like me) were seeing it as yellow. I guess it depends on our eye's perception.
Here's the latest light curve (as of the 17th). Thanks Ian!
Astroblogger, Ian Musgrave has done a great report and pics taken with a point and shoot camera, see here.
Many of you will be familiar with Ian's work as he writes the very popular Southern Sky Watch web page.