BOSS team SN 50

[PeterM]

Hi all,

Well BOSS have done it, 50 discoveries in just 4 years! Below is also my 6th personal discovery.

On Sunday evening I imaged PGC18880 (aka ESO121-26) a pretty 12.6 magnitude Spiral Galaxy in Pictor.
The Possible Supernova (PSN) was discovered at magnitude 14.8r and has brightened to mag 14.5r, a visual target for medium-larger scopes and possibly one for those who want to have a go at a spectra.

We are waiting for the Pros to let us know what type of SN and as this galaxy is only 104 MLY away it should get some good follow up. There have been 2 previous SN in this galaxy 2008M & 2009mg

By the way, those who visually spot this SN, cast your mind back 104 million years and think about what was happening here on Earth at the time the light from this "new star" began its journey towards us. The link here gives some food for your thoughts.
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/EarthSC102Notes/102PTEarthHist.htm

Below is data for the new discovery and a link to the Bright Supernova page.

PSN J06213846-5942506, CBAT TOCP discovered 2012/12/16.533 by Peter Marples (BOSS)
Found in ESO 121-26 at R.A. = 06h21m38s.46, Decl. = -59°42'50".6 (= PGC 18880)
Located 2".3 west and 93".6 north of the center of ESO 121-26 (Discovery image)
Mag 14.8:12/16, Type unknown (References: SN 2009mg, 2008M)
http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

As this is our 50th SN I have asked Martin Pugh if he would kindly do one of his superb images on this galaxy, he has accepted and was hard at work on it last night, so stay tuned to see what no doubt will be a stunning image.

To those who can try for a spectra please do and when we get the data from the pros we will be posting that here.

To all Ice In Space members who give BOSS great support - thank you indeed, we are so proud to be members of this community and post our discoveries here first. Please visit our webpage
http://bosssupernova.com/

To the BOSS team, Stu Parker, Greg Bock, Pat Pearl, Colin Drescher and Brendan Downs - congratulations to us for getting to 50 roll on 100!

Disclaimer - if the end of the world occurs on Friday it had nothing to do with this latest supernova:lol:

Peter Marples

[Shark Bait]

Happy 50th. A Big effort from the BOSS team. :thumbsup:

[allan gould]

Happy 50th from me and boy that Sn is quite a away from the main galaxy. Well picked up Peter and may you have many more.

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
yes, congrats to Peter for number 50, we have all been trying hard in spite of the poorish weather in both NZ and SE Qld lately, to find number 50.
I missed out on the discovery action when Peter found this one, as I had left my telephone in the house while I was fiddling with the polar alignment, so I didn't hear him ring me several times during the initial flurry of action and call to arms for assistance...doh!!

Anyway, 24 hours later, and here's another finder chart made from 12 x 30 second images last night under poor seeing, and in between clouds rolling through, mixed with a bit of bushfire smoke! Magnitude is about 14.6R, and brightning.

It's a bit of a visual challenge, but I'm sure looking forward to any colour pics that anyone can capture!

Clear skies, looking forward to number 100 for BOSS!

[Martin Pugh]

Yes, congratulations to BOSS and Peter in particular.:thumbsup:

At Peter's request I went at it last night and I have already acquired 3 hours of RGB (1 hour each) and 2 hours of luminance. I looked at the data this morning and that SN is amazing.

Gonna be clear tonight also, so the scope will be trained on it again all night.

If anyone wants to see the early results, please PM me, but I would rather wait until I get a few hours.

cheers
Martin

[Greg Bock]

gr8 stuff Martin, looking forward to this one!!

[astroron]

Fantastic news Peter and the BOSS team,I hope it gets right enough for me to have a go at observing it :D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[stardust steve]

Well done Peter and team BOSS :thumbsup:

Looking forward to your image Martin.:)

[Terry B]

Well done guys.
I'm on holidays so can't try a spectra of this one.
Terry

[peter_4059]

Great news Peter. Well done BOSS team.

[Forgey]

Well done Peter, congrats BOSS team!

[naskies]

Congrats Peter! Well deserved and well done!

[Ric]

Congrats Pete, that is an excellent achievement from the BOSS team.

[scagman]

Congrates and happy 50th

Cheers

[Rob_K]

A worthy bat-wave to the crowd (us) Peter, but the job's not done yet. The Southern Hemisphere needs a big innings from BOSS so I'd advise that you take fresh guard, adjust the box, fiddle with the strap on your helmet, spit on the ground, play each supernova on its merits and above all concentrate as you move towards your century. :thumbsup: :P

Seriously great stuff from you & BOSS, congratulations! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[PeterM]

Howzat? Not out!!!
I like that, thanks

[Blue Skies]

:clap::clap::clap: Well done! Here's to the next 50!

[gaa_ian]

Great achievement Peter and BOSS, looking forward to the image too !

[gary]

Congratulations Peter and to the entire BOSS team on this particular discovery and on
the milestone of the 50th!



It was a Tuesday just like any other and I remember it well ... :lol:

Well done again! We are all in awe of your skill & dedication.

[PeterM]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your responses, greatly appreciated. Last nights image shows this PSN has brightened to mag 14.1r and should be a good visual target and perhaps a spectra could be obtained if suitably equipped. We expect to know more about it after the professionals take spectra in the next few days. Roger Groom has a pre- discovery image and Colin Drescher has produced a nice light curve that Col will post later.

In a nutshell,
8th December Roger and Stu Parker image the galaxy and there was no sign of the PSN down to their limiting magnitude.
14th Rogers pre-discovery image has the PSN at mag 15.5r
16th my discovery image has it at mag 14.8r
18th Rogers image has it at mag 14.3r
19th my image has it at 14.1r

So were are betting it is a type 1a supernova in a very fainter outer spiral arm. Looking so much forward to Martins image to see if it shows the outer arm.

P.S. as per post in another thread, we now know it is a very early type 1a.

[Colin D]

Everyone,

I have attached a simple lightcurve for this SN.
Thanks to the BOSS team members and Roger Groom from WA for the images.
Listed are the measured R magnitudes, all from unfiltered images.
If anyone on the list can acquire filtered photometry it may be of high interest to the professionals, as this young type Ia SN is still brightening.

Congrats Peter, a great find for our 50th BOSS SN.

[PeterM]

Today I woke up to emails from 5 different professional astronomers all exited about this new Supernova. It is about 1 week away from maximum light. This means any data re brightness will be very useful indeed. Seems it will be followed by some of the worlds largest telescopes - valuable time that would have been used elsewhere. So much for those who think amateur discoveries of SN don't contribute the the science.

[pvelez]

That explains the clouds in Sydney!

Will swap over to photometric filters in case it clears

Pete

[PeterM]

Hi all,
The official announcement has come through from CBAT - Central Bureau Astronomical Telegrams - the official body and part of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) based at Harvard University that catalogues/names astronomical discoveries
CBET 3346 (electronic telegram) designates the new discovery as SN2012hr in PGC18880.
Thanks again.

[Suzy]

Huge congratulations Peter on your 6th discovery and another round of applause for the Boss team's 50th!

Wow, that sn sure is sitting far outside that galaxy!
I can't wait to eyeball it when it gets a wee bit brighter. :D

[astroron]

I would love to see that Suzy :D
The weather has been to crap to observe it so far from Cambroon :mad2:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Sirius should change it's name to Super Nova Central :)

Well done Peter. If only we had some clear skies to TRY to image it.

[mozzie]

well done peter and the boss team!!!!
when the weather clears i'm going to have a wee little look at that.....

[PeterM]

We have an updated visual magnitude from an observer with AAVSO on the 27th noting 13.6 magnitude. A reasonably easy target for many scopes.
Happy hunting!

[pvelez]

I've started monitoring this SN

Between 26 and 28 December its hovering around mag 13.77 in V and R. In B its brightened from 14.2 to 13.8. My results for I are a bit odd so I'll refrain from posting them now.

It might be levelling off but I don't have enough data to really make any comment. If the sky plays nicely I might have some information in a few days

At these mags, its really beyond my spectroscope. Perhaps next week when the moon rises later I'll give it a go anyway

Pete

[Terry B]

I was able to get a spectra of this tonight. It is pretty noisy but certainly looks like a type 1a SN.

https://gelato.tng.iac.es/plots/plot_sA5BOAg2H9gI.png

I have taken BVRI images as well but haven't processed them yet.
Cheers

Terry

[PeterM]

Oh wow, Terry & Pete you guys are shining lights on where amateur (did I say amateur) astronomy is heading. Fantastic!
Terry I have sent your spectra onto professional astronomers at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. BOSS have developed a relationship with them over the last 4 years and their support of amateur astronomers is something that is so very encouraging, they will be very impressed with your work and I will pass on any comments they make.
Jaw dropping stuff guys, the fact that your are in there doing this shows amateur astronomy is really looking up!

[pvelez]

Terry

Great work - as always

How many exposures in that spectrum and what was your integration time?

Pete

[Terry B]

Dear Peters
The exposure was 11x300s. There was a bit of cloud around so wih clear sky I should be able to do better.
Peter
If you want the fit file of the spectra to send to Chile just let me know.
Cheers
Terry

[Terry B]

I did better tonight. The sky was cloud free but it was very windy. This made sthe SN jump all around the slit.
6 x 10 min exposures.
It fits nicely now with a -1 day type 1a SN according to GELATO.
I looked up the redshift for the host galaxy and it is z = 0.007502
When I entered this value for the SN the match was better.
https://gelato.tng.iac.es/plots/plot_532JR0WE1aez.png

ps:this link brings up a warning about an out of date cert. The site seems safe though.

[pvelez]

Thats a great match Terry - you should be pleased with that.

I plan on setting up the LISA on this one later in the week - if the clouds play nicely.

How is your BVRI data looking?

Pete

[pvelez]

I managed a spectrum for this SN last night.

Its a bit more woolly than Terry's effort. I mucked up my calibration routine so this is simply based on the internal neon calibration lamp. Still, it looks a fair match to Terry's work.

Taken from suburban Sydney - 7km from the CBD. 7 x 600s exposures with ST-10XME with LISA mounted on an RC8.

Pete

[pvelez]

The Gelato tool is so cool!

Here's my spectrum matched with 1996x - a Type Ia SN 3 days after maximum.

I can't believe there are such amazing tools available for amateurs.

Pete

[Terry B]

Well done Pete!
Did you take a spectra of a B9V or A0V star to correct the instrument response?
Gelato is a great tool I agree
Cheers
Terry

[pvelez]

I tried

first I used Fomalhaut as it is the star I use to sync my mount at this time of year - too bright

Then I used a nearby star - turned out to be a double star so that mucked up the calibration.

I then finished off with an A0 star - for some reason (perhaps insufficient SNR) I couldn't do better than RMS of about 3.3.

Will concentrate on this more next time.

Based on your last spectrum and mine, we have maximum for this SN at around 31 December. How does that sit with your BVRI data?

Pete

[Terry B]

I used Mu Pic (HD46860) which is a B9Ve star about 1 1/2 deg away from the SN. I just take 30 sec exposures x 5 of the calibration star and then divide it by appropriate Pickles spectra. This then gets smoothed and becomes the response curve. It is pretty constant from night to night but is affected by the altitude of the star affecting the blue end of the spectra.

I only have 2 nights of photometry from 29th and 30th.
There was only a 0.01 change in V mag over the 2 nights so this is inconclusive. The AAVSO data isnt conclusive either as there is quite a bit of variation betrwwn observers.
see the graph (http://www.aavso.org/lcg/plot?auid=000-BKT-940&starname=SN%202012HR&lastdays=10&start=&stop=2456294.9641889697&obscode=BHQ&obscode_symbol=2&obstotals=yes&calendar=calendar&forcetics=&grid=on&visual=on&r=on&uband=on&iband=on&bband=on&v=on&pointsize=1&width=800&height=450&mag1=&mag2=&mean=&vmean=)
It's cloudy tonight so nothing from tonight.
Terry

[astroron]

I have just observed SN 2012 hr in my 16"scope
eyepieces 9mm nagler,203xmag and 6mm Radian 300 xmag
Easily seen and estimate it to be about 14th mag
Seeing only moderate with moon glow starting and some high hazy cloud passing in front of the galaxy.
Brief observation,but hope to follow up with further observations tomorrow and following week .
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Terry B]

Another spectra from this SN. Taken last night with 6 x 600sec exposure with my LISA
simultaneous photometry gives
B = 14.20
V = 13.94
R = 13.98
I = 14.42
https://gelato.tng.iac.es/plots/plot_n8QswoQB22h5.png

Cheers
Terry