Nova near Alpha Centauri

[Tropo-Bob]

Well, I finally saw the nova (13H54m45s, -59.01) , which is just visible to the unaided eye, but much better in binoculars.
For me in the tropics, it was up at 4am, as Alpha does not rise here till the early hours.
I am interested in following any changes in colour.
How would others describe the colour? ( I am not saying what I thought, as I do not wish to sway others.)

[Shark Bait]

I had a look this morning just before twilight and it seemed to have a slightly pink hue. I did not notice any colour as the morning twilight kicked in.

[jamespierce]

We had a nice view of Nova Cen 2013 at the ASV Star B Que last night also - It's easily visible naked eye at the moment. Perhaps around Mag 4.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131207.html

[Tropo-Bob]

Compared with last Sunday morning, the Nova seemed about 0.2mag brighter this morning
At first glance, the colour appears to be a mainly white, but with a slight orange/yellow hue to it. This hue appeared slightly lighter today than it appeared on Sunday.

[dutch2]

We have had cloud cover in Gawler every night for the past week, go figure.:rolleyes:

[mental4astro]

Burnt the midnight oil tonight with work. Once done and stumbling over the kids skate-bloody-boards in the dark at 4:30 in the morning, I looked up and the clouds just parted to give me a lovely first look of the nova. How cool! Ha, my first nova, :) . Easy to make out from my home in Sydney too.

While its been a poor year at the scope, I did manage a number of firsts over the last 18 months - my first comet (Lemmon) since Halley's (yeah, bring up McNaught and I'll break your arm!:mad2:), my first supernova (in NGC 1365), and the fainter members of the Trapesium in Orion all the way to Trap i !!! Not too bad a year all the same, :) .

[Pinwheel]

This maybe a dumb question but if Alpha Centauri is our nearest Star to earth (excluding our Sun) then this Nova would be the closet on record. Or is it way back behind Alpha Centauri by thousands of lightyears?

[malclocke]

Hi Doug,

Actually, the Nova is closer in the sky to beta centauri than alpha.

But you're right, the Nova is a lot more distant than either. I read today that it is currently the most distant star visible to the naked eye, although I don't think an accurate distance is yet known.

[Gem]

Rats - had the scope out last night and didn't know!! :mad2: I remember SN1987 - was one of the first things I saw with my scope as a kid... ahhh the days of the 50mm refractor with 0.96" EPs. Seems a lifetime ago... oh... wait... ;)

[Tropo-Bob]

The brightness this the nova this morning seemed unchanged compared to the morning of the 11th. I had difficult observering conditions though, being through broken cloud and haze.

[philipheaven]

Does anyone have an image or map of where the nova is in relation to alpha and Beta Cen?

[Pinwheel]

I had a look at it two nights ago, seemed pinky orange in colour, I don't know if this is it's colour or atmosphere interference. Seeing is not great at the moment as harvesting is on & lots of dust & smoke pollution is in the air.

[mithrandir]

There's my annotated image in http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=1041057&postcount=1

[pixelsaurus]

Taken nearly a week ago. The Southern Cross is at the top lying on its eastern side.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a615/pixelsaurus1/Things%20Celestial/Nova_zpsbcbfdce8.jpg

[malclocke]

This image from the ESO shows it's position well in relation to the pointers and the southern cross.

http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/potw1349a.jpg

[Tropo-Bob]

The nova has faded during the last 24 hours and the colour has deepened. It is about 0.2-0.3 Mag fainter than yesterday and the colour is a redish-brown, rather like Arcturus, but one shade lighter.

[cometcatcher]

I agree with Bob. Colour looks somewhat reddish this morning.

Pic with a Celestron 90mm Mak at 1000mm f/L.

[Jon]

Yes, that's looking the characteristic pink of a nova that is pumping out light in the Ha and Hb wavelengths. A bluish-pink - not unlike the shade of the fire of M42, and for the same reasons. Check our the spectra in the thread in the spectroscopy section of the forum and you'll see why.

[Tropo-Bob]

There seemed to be no significant change in brightness or colour during the last 24 hours. It was a difficult observation this morning though with continious light cloud and the Moon above the horizon for the first time.

[deniseselmo]

I'd like to share Rogerio Marcon's spectrum of the Nova made in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil this last week. Our spectroscopy group has been studying and reducing data every time he has a new one.
I wonder why I can'f find photometry data about Nova Cen 2013. I found just a little on the AAVSO site. It would certainly help us understand the events happening in this intriguing nova.

[malclocke]

Your groups work has not gone unnoticed :) Congratulations to everyone involved, these are currently the only amateur high resolution spectra of this nova available.

There are lots of low resolution spectra in this thread http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1042712

I'm not really sure why there is so little photometry. It is still very bright which I think makes it difficult for aperture photometry, we might see more data come through as it gets dimmer ... maybe? In general, I think it is a hard target for photometry and spectroscopy at the moment.

[Tropo-Bob]

The nova has faded again during the last 24 hours. The colour was much lighter than yesterday and I have difficulty describing it, but my best estimate was a light blue-pink colour.

[Tropo-Bob]

The nova had a deeper colour this morning, with more of an orange-brown hue. The nova was only slightly fainter than it was on 18th Dec.
Does anybody have (or can recommend) a chart that shows a broad area around the nova,shown with the magnitudes marked of nearby stars, so that I can estimate the Nova's brightness when using binoculars?

[Occulta]

Try this one Bob.

Chris

[Tropo-Bob]

Thanks Chris, that is excellent.

[mithrandir]

With what did you create that plot Chris? Here is one I generated with the ASVSO's "Variable Star Plotter" software.

[Occulta]

Pleasure Bob

Don't know who or what programme generated that plot Andrew, sorry.
It was sent to me by a friend who had it sent to him - recycling is good :D

Chris

[malclocke]

Hi Bob,

Here's the binocular chart I generated from the AAVSO. It's oriented similar to how the stars appear directly after sunset, you will need to rotate it slightly clockwise later in the evening.

The two bright stars are beta and alpha centauri from left to right.

The range of magnitudes on the marked stars should be good for the novas current brightness. You'll need a different chart as it gets dimmer.

[Tropo-Bob]

The nova is brighter this morning (estimate mag 4.5) and is just visible with direct vision in the moonlight. The colour is lighter again, mainly blue but with a pink/oranage hue.
Thanks for all those charts guys.

[Jon]

Yep, this one is a real roller-coaster. I thought Nova Delphini 2013 was the most amazing astronomical experience, but this one blows it out of the water.

[Tropo-Bob]

The colour of the Nova is deeper this morning, still bluish, but with a stronger tint of orange/brown. I estimate it as being Mag 4.6.
There was a slight haze, which probably explains why I could not see the Nova without using binoculars.

I always use a 102mm (F 6.3) Kson reflector with a Meade 20mm eyepiece (wide angle, 67 degrees, from memory) when judging the colour. I notice that when I occassionally used a radian, the Nova appears to take on a slight deeper hue.

Does anybody have any thoughts on what eyepiece types/brands render the most accurate colours to the observer?

[Tropo-Bob]

Today, I estimate the Nova to be aprox Mag 4.5 and it was just visible with direct vision in the moonlight. The colour seems to have lighten. As a generalistation, I would normally say the colour is blue with an oranage hue, but today I would say that it is white with a yellow heu.

[Tropo-Bob]

The Nova has no change in brightness since yesterday, and I still estimate it to be Mag 4.5, however, the colour seems to have deepened back to it's more charactisic orange hue (I thought it look yellow yesterday).

[Tropo-Bob]

There appears to have been no significant change from that of 23 hours ago; ie, estimate Nova as being Mag 4.5 and having an orange hue.

[Tropo-Bob]

The Nova may be a touch fainter today, I estimate at Mag 4.5-4.6, whilst its orange hue also appears to be slightly lighter.

[Tropo-Bob]

The Nova is declining in brightness: I estimated as being at Mag 4.7 this morning around 3am. I did not check the colour, as sleep was a more appealing option at the time. Now that I am fresh, I wish I had checked. Lol.

[Tropo-Bob]

At 5am, I estimated the Nova as being 4.7-4.8 Mag, and it appeared to be a light pink colour.

[Tropo-Bob]

At 4.45am, I again estimated the Nova to be Mag 4.7-4.8 and was just visible to the eye.
The colour was a litte darker, more orange than my previous observation.

[Tropo-Bob]

A bit late this morning, I observed when the sky was brightning at 5.10am. There seemed to be no significant change in Mag, but I did not complete my observations because light cloud hampered my viewing.

[Tropo-Bob]

The nova appeared to be somewhere between 5.0-5.2 mag this morning at 2.15. It has faded appreciably since I last observed it. The Monsoon has been here so I have had no luck with the weather. (One does not even bother to go outside when waking up at the appropriate time, one hears rain on the roof).
The colour seemed a bluish-pink, but as it is fainter, it is becomming more difficult to detect.

[Tropo-Bob]

I estimated the Nova to Mag 5.5 to 5.7 at 2.35am this morning.Although faded, and more than a month past its prime, it can still be clearly seen with small binoculars.

[Andrew Pearce]

Hi all

I don't want to make anyone jealous but over here in Perth, we basically haven't seen a cloud for 2 months! I have been lucky enough to observe V1369 Cen on 47 nights since it was discovered in early December. It's been really fun to follow as you never know what it'll do from one night to the next. Looking at the forecast we have a further 5 days of clear skies! I am getting a bit tired!

Cheers
Andrew

[cometcatcher]

You What?! Basically I haven't seen the night sky in 2 months. Swap ya? :P