andyc
03-11-2014, 02:29 AM
And now for something a little different :)
Two of the brighter supernovae in the sky, both Type II, are in the evening sky just now:
ASASSN-14ha is somewhere near mag. 15.0 and in the Spanish Dancer, NGC1566, 38 million light-years away in Dorado, photogenic, but challenging to resolve in my equipment. 20 minutes of 5-minute subs, 150mm f/5 Newt, EOS60D at ISO640. It is inconveniently located between a foreground star and the bright Seyfert nucleus. Larger version here (http://www.pbase.com/andycasely/image/158072051/original).
SN2014cx was a similar brightness in the irregular spiral NGC337, 60 million light-years away in Cetus, mag. 14.9 on the Bright Supernovae page (http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/). The SN is on the upper-left side of the galaxy. The image is a stack of 6 x 5-minute subs, but imaging into the Sydney light dome from my home and only the brighter parts of the galaxy came out through lots of red smoke/dust haze. The big dim spiral NGC337A out of the crop but very nearby was just about invisible in the stack (a few bright knots, might make a good dark-sky target).
Two of the brighter supernovae in the sky, both Type II, are in the evening sky just now:
ASASSN-14ha is somewhere near mag. 15.0 and in the Spanish Dancer, NGC1566, 38 million light-years away in Dorado, photogenic, but challenging to resolve in my equipment. 20 minutes of 5-minute subs, 150mm f/5 Newt, EOS60D at ISO640. It is inconveniently located between a foreground star and the bright Seyfert nucleus. Larger version here (http://www.pbase.com/andycasely/image/158072051/original).
SN2014cx was a similar brightness in the irregular spiral NGC337, 60 million light-years away in Cetus, mag. 14.9 on the Bright Supernovae page (http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/). The SN is on the upper-left side of the galaxy. The image is a stack of 6 x 5-minute subs, but imaging into the Sydney light dome from my home and only the brighter parts of the galaxy came out through lots of red smoke/dust haze. The big dim spiral NGC337A out of the crop but very nearby was just about invisible in the stack (a few bright knots, might make a good dark-sky target).