NGC5128 Supernova

[PeterM]

Hi all,
Hot off the press for you all, this is as it happened over the last few hours.
Myself and Greg Bock from the BOSS team have discovered a possible supernova in NGC5128, the famous Hamburger galaxy in Centaurus.
The galaxy is 12 million light years away and we estimate mag 14 however it is right next to a brighter star. The possible Supernova could brighten significantly and you are urged to take images if possible. Please see my discovery image, more date to follow. looking forward to color images. we have reported to the IAUs new Transient Name Server (TNS) and await a spectra.
Thanks for looking.

[blink138]

ooh very exciting to have a close amateur galaxy, looks very interesting peter, sorry i am a noob but i have pics of this and the extra bump is not on mine
pat

[PeterM]

Hi Pat
Thanks for replying. When did you take your images and how long were the exposures?
Peter

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Peter

Great find. If it helps I took a single image of NGC 5128 from 1:37 am to 1:43 am on Saturday 6 February. The image was taken at ISO400 on a Canon 60Da. I've attached a zoomed, cropped jpeg taken from the original RAW file. As you can see, the SN is there. When was your image taken?

Kind regards

Paul

[PeterM]

[QUOTE=pfitzgerald;1229425]Hi Peter

Great find. If it helps I took a single image of NGC 5128 from 1:37 am to 1:43 am on Saturday 6 February. The image was taken at ISO400 on a Canon 60Da. I've attached a zoomed, cropped jpeg taken from the original RAW file. As you can see, the SN is there. When was your image taken?


Paul this is very useful! Its the first pre discovey image I am aware of. Our discovery image was taken at 11pm last night. The professionals are going nuts with many emails. Seems we got the magnitude somewhat skewed at 14 and more like mag 15.5 ish and im hoping we can be forgiven for that. Can you send me any fits file you have for this image as this may prove very useful to professional astronomers.
Thanks Peter

[pfitzgerald]

Can do Peter - please send me a PM with the details of how to get the a copy of the original RAW image to you and I'll do so tonight as soon as I get home from work.

Paul

[PeterM]

Excellent Paul have pmd you my email. As this is a prediscovery image and in color you may want to send to David Bishop Bright Supernova Page. Emails can be sent to his site via dbishopx@gmail.com
The site is at
http://www.supernova.thistlethwaites.com/snimages/

[astroron]

Great news guys.:thumbsup:
I hope it brightens to a visual magnitude. :prey::prey:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Greg Bock]

Hi guys
finder image here with discovery details.

[strongmanmike]

Awesome!!! Lets get imaging! :thumbsup:

Mike

[PeterM]

The pros have some initial photometry and its seems the red magnitude is 14.3 so that's a lot more promising. We have been sent some Hubble Deep field images around the PSN site and there maybe several candidates for the progenitor (star that exploded). We have been inundated with emails from professional astronomers all over the world. Amazing. Yes lots of color images folks. Go back over any recent images as we know its wasn't there on the 3rd February so getting a timeline would be valuable.

[blink138]

does it matter how old the pics are greg?
pat

sorry i just read "recent" images, good luck with it anyhow mate!

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Peter
If Melbourne's forecast holds I'll have another go tonight. Does anyone have any thoughts on what exposure lengths will provide the best data? I suspect that 300 seconds would be too long - the length of the single image I got early Saturday morning. I've not 'done' this before - imaging a SN - so any help would be much appreciated.
Paul

[mental4astro]

Peter & Greg, fabulous find lads. This SN, along with Mike's own discovery, have made for a very exciting start to the year!

I'm following this with great interest. I'm hoping for a visual inspection shortly too.

Mental.

[PeterM]

Seems there maybe 5 magnitudes of visual extinction here, the object is heavily reddened in some of pros images. Wow just imagine if it wasnt. Should start getting spectra later today will keep you all informed.

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
Any hi-res images taken over the last 4 weeks or so would be great. We are fairly sure that it wasn't visible on 3 February according to Stu Parker's image (limiting mag <18) and it had appeared by 6 Feb according to Paul's image above. So it appears that it exploded somewhere in between those dates making it about 2 to 5 days old at discovery.

[h0ughy]

awesome fellas

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
for those of you who are interested....

Atel 8655 just released, indicates that spectra taken with the 2.4 m telescope ( LJT + YFOSC) at Lijiang observatory of Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spectrum appears to be heavily reddened, which is consistent with the red photometric color measured in Atel #8654. H-alpha emission line detected, and its classification is consistent with a Type II supernova. However, due to the relatively low SNR of the spectrum (taken at airmass ~2.9) and heavy reddening, regard this classification as tentative in nature.

http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8655

[rustigsmed]

awesome find!
Melbourne ***should*** be clear tonight I might take a couple of pics but it may be still fairly low before I hit the hay.

[andyc]

That's exciting, congratulations on the find! And may have decided my imaging target for tonight, if Sydney's clear as forecast :). What's the separation between the PSN and the bright field star in arcsec?

[Greg Bock]

Not much, in fact, if seeing is poor, the bright star will just seem elongated. Good luck Andy.

[andyc]

"Not much" being the scientific assessment, I'd better hope for ok seeing! I'm optimistic based on the resolution of my last 5128 image and the improved performance of my new scope, so fingers crossed :)

[Greg Bock]

Also, some discovery stats...
That's 15 SN discoveries for Pete, 13 for me, and its is 139th for BOSS. As it turns out, Stu also found another SN waiting to go into the official record (Transient Network Server of the IAU) which makes 140 in total for BOSS today.

[scagman]

Well done again Peter.

I imaged this on saturday night so I will have a look when I get home tonight and see whats there.

[rogerg]

Fantastic Pete & Greg! You must be over the moon! I'll be sure to script in nightly images of it.

[Greg Bock]

Yes Roger we are, it's one of the holy grails of supernova searching behind finding one in the Milky Way, LMC, SMC, or M31...still searching them too.
It seems to be hidden by dust, quite dim for its age, so it's been described by some of the professionals as " we found something frustratingly mysterious"...good we like the unusual ones.!

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Peter and Greg

As per your suggestion (Peter) I have just emailed Daivd with a copy of the image I took early Saturday morning and ccd B.O.S.S. into it as well.

Hopefully it will prove to be of use to you all, despite its lengthy exposure time. I've been eagerly following this thread as much as I could during the day - fortunately it was my school's swimming carnival so have had a number of opportunities to do so! (I might be a bit blurry eyed in class tomorrow though as I'm just about to go out and set my gear up to have another run at it tonight - well early tomorrow morning that is. ;))

I am really looking forward to seeing what additional data surfaces in the coming days, including an analysis of its spectrum and a determination of what type of SN it is.

Congratulations once again to you and your team on its discovery, and for posting the details here on IIS. I'm tickled pink to have captured an image of it - and to think that it may turn out to be the first image taken of it. It's mind blowing to think that you have been the first person to see something for the first time and that the event causing it occurred 12 million years ago. :eyepop:

Kindest regards

Paul

[PeterM]

Ok here is what we can say it is definitely a supernova, not really sure of the type and it is "interesting". It probably wont brighten and will need good seeing to separate from the brighter star next to it. Paul thanks for sending your pre-discovery image to the Bright Supernova Page. You may well indeed have been the first to capture this event.

[astroron]

Oh well, Was hoping for a visual,but it looks very doubtful.:sadeyes:
Well it just gives me another reason to observe NGC 5128,not that one needs much prodding.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Very well done gentlemen! I hope to observe it too but in the colour pre-discovery images it does look very red (obscured?) and the proximity to that 8th mag star will make it challenging unless it brightens to 13th or 12th magnitude.

Best,

L.

[barx1963]

I have an image that I took Saturday night and it shows a little blip next to the star. Taken with my Canon 760D.
It is not very good but it appears to be there.

Exciting stuff!!

Malcolm

[Somnium]

great pick up, looking forward to seeing how this one progresses

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Guys

I've just heard back from Dave Bishop and I need to convert my .cr2 image into a .fit file. Given that I'm working on a Mac, what is the best way to do so without losing any data.

TYAIA

Paul

[Greg Bock]

Paul,
MaximDL can read CR2 files and save them as FITs.
I can get it from Dave and send back to him.

[rustigsmed]

DSS should be able to do it too if you don't have maximdl

[andyc]

Well, a partial success - managed 7 x 5-minute frames in murky conditions with a heap of skyglow/LP and Cen A not all that high either (was about 11:45pm-12:15am 9th-10th Feb). Low clouds from the coast scuppered my hopes of getting a good imaging session in!

The up-side is that the SN was clearly resolved from the field star.

Greg, let me know if you'd like any raws, debayered/non-debayered FITS, or any of the stacks. Though I'm sure there'll be better quality tonight :)

Images (150% crops) in order - processed stack of 7, the plain stack of 7 with only a stretch applied, and one raw unstretched frame.

Equipment: EOS 60D on 200mm f/5 Newtonian, HEQ5 Pro, guided, darks, flats and bias removed from the stacks in PixInsight.

[pfitzgerald]

B*##^r!

Four images into a run of 12 x 300" images and I come outside to see how they're progressing and the sky has completely clouded over - three hours earlier than predicted. Hopefully what I've got will be useful, but after waiting hours for NGC 5128 to get to a half reasonable altitude I'm stymied by the weather. Aah well, I'll take the darks, pack up and go to bed I guess.

Paul

PS Images to follow later today.

[bojan]

From Melbourne.. at midnight

Rubinar 1000/10, Canon 60D, ISO6400, stack 32x45sec.
Crop 2400x1600

[PeterM]

New ATel 8657 from Las Campanas Observatory in Chile indicates a probable type 1b Supernova about a week past maximum.
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8657

[PeterM]

Great colour images Andyc and Bojan. Im sure David Bishop who maintains The Bright Supernova Page
http://www.supernova.thistlethwaites.com/snimages/
would appreciate them and any other images from our IIS astro imagers. You can send them to dbishopx@gmail.com

[Greg Bock]

Nice try guys, weather wins as usual. I also tried but wind and low cloud interfered. The SN appears to be highly dimmed due to its location and has proven to be a challenge for measuring it accurately, but the latest figures indicate a type Ib struggling to be seen through the galactic murk.

[pfitzgerald]

Nice captures gents.

I still need to apply darks and flats, but here is the best of what I got last night before the clouds rolled in. Again it is a single 300s image captured at ISO400 and at 1:32 am. I've applied a basic levels and curves to it in PSCS5, saved it as tiff file then cropped and saved as jpeg for uploading.

Paul

[sn1987a]

Had the 28" on 5128 last night and even with wishful thinking I couldn't honestly say I could see the SN at 340x. Tried higher magnification up to 1350x but seeing wouldn't support it. Curt was out there with me and couldn't see anything either. :sadeyes:

[alocky]

I'm almost glad you couldn't see it, as it means we wouldn't have picked it up on the weekend if I'd bothered to get out the sn search charts.
Still, no excuse for slackness!
Just goes to show the quality of work Peter and the rest of the BOSS team have achieved, to be able to pick something out of a 30 sec exposure from suburbia that is beyond the limits of a seasoned observer with a good 28 under dark skies who knew exactly where to look!
Cheers,
Andrew.

[rustigsmed]

my plan was to do some imaging and then nab the SN at the end of the sesh when ngc 5128 was higher up. when this happened my computer started playing up :shrug: so no pic from me. a bit annoying as weather was still good at 4am and now the rest of the week isn't looking so good for later in the evening. but still a murky chance.

[rogerg]

Blog post on the Perth Observatory website:

https://www.perthobservatory.com.au/news/backyard-discovery-of-supernova-in-the-hamburger

Let me know if I got anything wrong Greg/Peter ;) :thumbsup:

[glend]

I am going to try to spend all tonight from 1:30am onwards imaging NGC 5128 with my longest fl (the RC). Hopefully it stays clear here as it is now.

[PeterM]

Oh wow Roger that is great. Thank You
Peter

[Greg Bock]

Yes, Roger, very well written, and no issues at all. Thanks so much.

[barx1963]

Here is a crop of a 300s image at 1600 I took at about 1am on Sunday morning through my ED80.
There is a bulge just to the right of the star near middle which wasn't on an image I took a few days before and seems to match the SN
Haven't processed this at all apart from resizing and some pretty heavy handed cropping!!
Took another image last night that shows it clearly, will try to post that tonight.

Now added second image from 1am this morning.

Malcolm

[PeterM]

SWIFT has had a look at the SN, here is the Atel

[Greg Bock]

And another Atel (that makes 6 of them now) adding to the mystery of what it actually is....Is it actually SN type IIb now?...obviously more spectra to be done yet.
That's the third attempt to classify it, and its still not settled. I've never seen this before...this one is proving to be very interesting indeed!

[traveller]

Just catching up on this thread, wow :eyepop:
I imaged Centaurus A on sat night, better look through the subs now!
Bo

[traveller]

I think I got it.
Only took 45 x 60 sec subs at 1600 ISO as I was imaging nearby Omega Centauri most of the evening :rolleyes:
Happy to forward the raw files to the relevant people if they are useful.
Bo

[OzEclipse]

Peter & Greg,

Yet another great discovery.

Congratulations guys!!!!

Joe Cali

[Suzy]

Many congratulations Greg, Peter and the BOSS team, finding an sn especially in the Centaurus A galaxy, how cool is that, wow! I'm so excited and thrilled for you guys.

I've posted about this on our fb page this afternoon, so if you're on fb please share with your clubs and observatories, in a quest to get more eyes on it :thanx:.
Paul, I hope you don't mind that I posted your crop on fb from Feb 6th, along with Greg's discovery image. Well done Paul, you must be chuffed :D!

[N1]

Great work!



Could it be something more distant and more luminous?

[trek1701]

I'm just catching up on this thread as well.

I took this shot just after midnight Saturday evening at the Astronomical Society of Victoria dark sky site near Heathcote It seems I may have also inadvertently made a prediscovery of a possible Supernova in NGC 5128. 20x15sec CPC11 at f6 Canon 6D ISO6400. Cropped. 7th February 12:15am local time.

Regards Mark

[andyc]

A better processed version of the image from last night, 200% crop. The SN is pretty red even once the LP murk has been removed.

[Andrew Pearce]

Hi All

I tried to observe the supernova visually this morning in my 16" reflector and despite reasonably good seeing (which allowed me to use magnification up to 480x), I couldn't see it. I could see down to a limit of around magnitude 15.5 as a mag 15.0 field star nearby was easily visible. I saw on TNS that someone had measured a V mag of 15.7 last night, so I probably just missed it. However the biggest challenge was it being very close to a bright mag 12 field star.

Oh well it was worth the effort!

Regards
Andrew Pearce (WA)

[PeterM]

Great efforts guys and yes Mark you have it. Shame its not a visual target.

The Bright Supernova Page wants images for a timeline and pre discovery even if there was no SN a month prior would be great. Please supply date and UT taken and send to link I posted earlier in thread.

Brisbane Times did an interview earlier for an article and I gave IIS a big plug.

Thanks for all your great comments. Sincerely appreciated.

Peter

[Greg Bock]

And here's my image tonight showing the 5 arcsecond gap between the SN and the bright star.

[pfitzgerald]

No drama at all Suzy - am happy to share it so that others get to see it.

Paul

PS I had brief thoughts to drag the gear out to have another go last night. The mind was willing, but the flesh was week. Slept like a baby for 9.5 hrs last night!

[glend]

Here is my image of the NGC5128 SN2016adj, taken last night from my backyard observatory. Details of the image are: Scope RC08 on a NEQ6 mount, camera Canon 450D Full Spectrum and cold finger modified, 20 * 360" guided subs shot at ISO1600 with sensor temperature set at 1C. Stacked in DSS with Darks,Flats, and Bias/offset frames all at the same sensor temperature.

I have added a couple of arrows to show the location of the SN and adjacent star. I noticed that in mine I am seeing an orange tinge to the SN, perhaps the nature of my camera spectrum range. As usual with RCs the diffraction of bright stars can get in the way of small details like the gap, still it looks ok and has not been overly stretched, just auto leveled in Photoshop and a crop to keep the size down.

More detailed version here:
http://www.astrobin.com/full/238689/0/

[strongmanmike]

Great capture Greg :thumbsup: hope it brightens.

Mike

[PeterM]

Just saw this posted on Sky & Telescope
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/online-gallery/the-supernova-at-2016ad-in-ngc5128-centaurus-a/

[astroron]

The red/orange colour is because the supernova is embedded in the dust of the galaxy,which is called extinction,just like the sun is red in the evening sky low down on the horizon, small dust particles darken the light toward the red.
Nice pic BTW.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Suzy]

Thank you Paul :), the fb post is doing quite well I'm pleased to see, in getting the news out there.
Hey, you deserve some sleep, you have been a real star, pardon the pun :lol:. What a thrill having that pic from Feb 6th and you were getting out there each moment you had.

Ron- that's a great and simple explanation re the colour :thumbsup:. I may need to nick it on future fb posts on the sn :P.

[blink138]

i do hope it brightens!
pat

[PeterM]

Indeed it is, Thanks Ron!

[andyc]

I'm having too much fun with this supernova! I've made a blink animation from images of Cen A from last year and from this week (http://www.pbase.com/andycasely/image/162549236/original) Even with the change in equipment, the appearance of a little red star is clear

[pfitzgerald]

That's really cool Andy - could you please share with us how you did it.

I'll like to make up my own sequence over the weekend to show the Astronomy Club students at my school at our first meeting for the year on Tuesday.

Paul

[andyc]

Thanks Paul! I took the two pictures, overlaid them in Photoshop CS2 in separate layers, opened the 'animation' mini-window, and made two frames in there, timed to run for two seconds each. Make the relevant layer visible for each timestep. Then 'Save for Web' and save as a .gif.
Hope that helps!

[pfitzgerald]

Awesome, thanks Andy.

I'll have a go at it tonight.

Paul

[PeterM]

Some more Atels recently released on this Supernova bringing that to 11 which is quite amazing. One professional astronomer calls it a "weird and interesting object".

Just curious, David Malin took a world famous image of Bob Evans supernova SN1986G I wonder if there might be a bit of a soft spot there for some nice images for the next Malin awards... just throwing it out there.

Seems there is much on going follow up from the professional community and we are hoping that since SWIFT has already been used the discovery is worthy of The Hubble Space Telescope being used.

Its fantastic that a number of Ice In Space imagers have submitted pre and post discovery images to the Bright Supernova sub page that is plotting a timeline of when the event occured. I have no doubt the value of these images will be used by astronomers who will be following this for sometime. Indeed congratulations to them as Google searches show some of those images popping up all over the place.

Seen some really nice pics from well known astroimagers like Damian Peach also.

I think that amateur astronomers here, whether beginners or well established should be very excited that this hobby allows you the opportunity to link with professional astronomers and add to the science of this wonderful hobby as recent discoveries by Mike Sidinio and Terry Lovejoy have shown.

Also to Mike Salway creator of this great resource that allows us all a means to communicate, learn and share
thanks indeed!

[PeterM]

Hey 8 year old William B. this one is for you and your Dad Dennis B.
Have fun in Sydney together.

Best wishes both of you.
Peter

[Atmos]

I took one last night when I was up in Heathcote. The first one I took it didn't show so I refocused and it appears that I didn't end up saving the second shot... Which actually showed the SN :(

[alocky]

Hi Peter - we have a visual observation. Last night both Barry and I wound our scopes out as far as we could (the shortest fl I had with me was 6mm!) and we both saw it at 1245x in the 28", then at 600x in the 25". Seeing and transparency were both exceptional, wind was an issue though. Especially 6' off the ground on a ladder...
Only proof we had was neither revealed the position angle until after we both thought we had it- we agreed with each other, then I checked this morning and it's the right spot. Fov was too narrow to make any meaningful magnitude estimates, but it was very difficult.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[Greg Bock]

Andrew, at that height you'd almost need a safety harness ! I haven't seen it visually myself yet, too many clouds and wind.

[gary]

Congratulations to Greg, Peter and the BOSS team!



Nice observation Andrew & Barry. :thumbsup:

[PeterM]

Thanks again all.

Seems the progenitor "may" have already been identified, this is amazing so quick.

[kinetic]

Congrats Peter!
Nice catch!
Here is a quick and dirty from the obs last night
Meade DSI II Mono and the 12" Newt.

Steve

[astroron]

Nice one Steve. :thumbsup:
Too dim for my 16" visibly. :sadeyes:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[PeterM]

New Atel 8720 (the 12th so far) re possible progenitor using Keck II telescope. Worth clicking on link that comes with the the Atel
http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~pkelly/F814W_16adj.png
Supernova 2016adj is still easily seen as this 1 sec image taken tonight shows (12inch LX200ACF@F7/SXVH694)
Peter

[PeterM]

Nice to see its todays APod. Anyone here still planning to image this?
Peter.

[Atmos]

I'd like to but probably won't get around to it for another fortnight or so.

[pfitzgerald]

I'll have another go at it this weekend Peter - Melbourne's weather permitting.

clearoutside.com is currently predicting clear skies Saturday and Sunday night.

Paul

[Somnium]

the discovery made for an APOD today

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

[bojan]

Still visible.. it looks like it faded slightly (just my gut feeling.. last night visibility was better than a month ago, yet it is harder to see it on image)

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
Apparently, this is one of the closest supernovae since the invention of the telescope, see the article about HST and the Spitzer telescopes here: http://blogs.goucher.edu/intheloop/9121/astronomy-prof-ben-sugerman-to-study-newly-discovered-supernova/

So, i thought it was worthwhile to find out the status of orbiting satellites that are involved with SN2016adj.
There are four satellites of NASA’s Great Observatories Program, three of which are still orbiting and operational. The Compton Gamma Ray telescope re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on June 4, 2000. The remaining three telescopes are now all involved with studying this supernova and includes:

Pre-explosion X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory - http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8677

Optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope using pre-explosion images of 6 July 2010 and post explosion images taken on 22 February 2016. http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8759

And, as mentioned above, The Spitzer IR telescope will be used soon.

Added to NASA’s Great Observatories are measurements from the Swift Gamma-Ray burst Mission, see here for the UV data from the Swift Satellite - http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8662

So, altogether, that makes three of NASA’s Great Observatories, plus the Swift Gamma-Ray burst telescope.
From an astronomical Pro-Am point of view, you can’t get much better than that!
Of course, the HST data is the icing on the cake!

[PeterM]

The Supernova is still there a month after discovery. Here is a 30 second image from Sunday morning.

[gary]

That's really cool Greg! :thumbsup:

Plus it highlights the fabulous contribution you guys are making to
helping in our understanding of the universe.

Congratulations again and well done!!!

[astroron]

Nice image Peter. :)
If only we could see it visually.:sadeyes:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[PeterM]

Thanks Gary & Ron,
infact thanks to all here who have looked at the thread. Your comments and good wishes are most appreciated.
We know there is much ongoing with the professionals with sn2016adj and we are looking forward to seeing just what comes of it.
Is there anyone else here still following or imaging?

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Peter

Between work, family and the weather I have not had an opportunity to capture another image of the SN since that first lucky snap I took early in the morning on Sat 6/2. However I am hoping to image it for an hour or so at this weekend's Snake Valley Astro Camp.

Congratulations again to you and the team - It's been really exciting and informative following this thread, and the results obtained by the 'Big Boys' and their toys.

Kind regards

Paul

PS If I'm fortunate enough to obtain an image this weekend I'll post it here early next week.

[grimsay]

Yes Peter, still following with interest. Very interesting and inspirational. Thank you and congrats.

[andyc]

Took another image of SN2016adj this week, managed to separate the SN nicely from the star with better viewing conditions. Still looks a fairly similar brightness to my image of 9th Feb, probably faded a bit though (<1/2mag?)

Larger view of the 5th March image here with capture details (http://www.pbase.com/andycasely/image/162735348/original)

I've made a comparison between the 9th Feb and 5th March too.

[Greg Bock]

Nice job Andy, and I really like the idea of the comparison images, well done. We seem to be plagued by clouds all too often here in SE Qld.

[Greg Bock]

and here's my offering tonight between the clouds. Fading slightly, but clear here in this 9.5 minute composite image taken through the 14" at 2400mm and ST10XE.

[andyc]

Cheers Greg, and that a very sharp view too. We've had a good few clear skies, but a scope focus issue and other circumstances have stopped me a bit. Was fun to grab a few frames. Hoping I can add to the sequence in the next month or two.

[strongmanmike]

Nicely resolved Greg :thumbsup:

Mike

[Greg Bock]

Thanks Mike,
That was binned 1x1 on the ST10XE using 30 second unguided subframes taken during light wind so I only used about 30% of the all subframes captured.
I'm cursed with bright light pollution from Surfers Paradise, but blessed with consistently sharp seeing due to steady Pacific Ocean air blowing above me. Can't have it all I suppose?

[strongmanmike]

For long FL I would take good seeing over dark skies, for wide field I would take dark skies over good seeing ;)

Mike

[Greg Bock]

Yes agreed, that's why I search for SNe from home at Runaway Bay, and take wide-field images from Leyburn. You can never have too many imaging sites!!

[PeterM]

The latest Astronomy Technology Today has a write up about BOSS and SN2016adj.
And you can subscribe free to it per this recent IIS post.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=142592&highlight=astronomy+technology

[sn1987a]

I may:shrug: have captured the SN on this iPhone shot last night using the NightCap Pro App and a 1/2 second exposure through 10mm Ethos Paracorr II and 28" Webster f4.2. I couldn't see the SN visually however.:P

[Greg Bock]

Hey Barry
You certainly did, that's gotta be a first, a SN taken by an iPhone!

[PeterM]

Agree you have captured sn2016adj. Agree that has to be a first. Never heard of a Supernova being captured on a mobile phone camera. Very impressed indeed.
For me that should have its own thread and maybe we could have a separate folder for any astro images taken with mobile devices. Will be interesting to see how this evolves in the next 10 yrs with all the wizz bang add on hardware and apps.

[csb]

Zoom in on the iPhone pic, the Nova is shaped like a loveheart. Good capture?

How long does it take for a distinctive nebula to form in regards to viewing/imaging?

[sn1987a]

Ummm no I think that's just optical and tracking resolution artifacts/smearing. It looks different in every shot so all I could really say is that the SN is definitely probably there but that's about all :lol:

[csb]

Thanks for the demo, Barry. (Boy, what a bozo comment I made :question: Such an amateur)

Well, I'll have to do some more reading about supernovae.

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Peter

Have just arrived home from SNAC, but sadly :( no pickies of the SN in NGC5128.

Friday night after setting up I imaged NGC 2359 whilst waiting for NGC 5128 to rise to a decent altitude - sent my scope and camera towards it at about 1 am only to have the clouds roll in just as the guide scope had started tracking well. Saturday night's weather was rubbish and Sunday night was almost a carbon copy of Friday night - imaged IC 2177 and NGC 5189 then at 11:30 swung the scope around to NGC 5128, picked a guide star, just started guiding and the fog and cloud rolled in to obscure the whole sky in under five minutes - *sigh*. I will get that elusive image, but it will have to wait until the school holidays now - hopefully it won't be too faint by then.

Paul

[strongmanmike]

:scared:...:bashcomp:

Astronomy................

[pfitzgerald]

Hi Mike - yeah at times it's like that.

But on the plus side it was a great camp, Malcolm and the boys put on a really great weekend.

Paul

[strongmanmike]

Will get there one year.....:rolleyes:

Mike :thumbsup:

[pfitzgerald]

It would be great to see you there Mike - Malcolm, Paul and the SVAC committee organise a great camp. I've found the atmosphere at the three camps I've attended now to be friendly, relaxing and informative - so much so that it's a real chore to pack up your gear on the final day and head back to the real world!

Paul

[xelasnave]

This has been a most exciting thread.
Congratulations
Left Sydney got home for 3 days but conditions prevented a capture.

[alocky]

Careful Barry you'll end up getting hooked on AP! Have you ever got the mallincam working on the Webster?
Cheers
Andrew

[sn1987a]

That was an AVS Mk IV camera but I sold it without trying it as I just couldn't be bothered learning all the guff and dealing with more spaghetti on the uta. I prefer the simplicity of the iPhone, a pipe fitting and Velcro. :D

Hey next time we're out lets be the first to iPhone Pluto!!! (and maybe Charon :P)

[Camelopardalis]

Looks like it was still glowing last night...once I've had some sleep I'll a shot, although it'll be no work of art!

[kinetic]

Here is a set from last night with the DSI II cooled.
Still there but getting dimmer :)

Steve

[Camelopardalis]

Rough processing of my image from Monday night with my Canon (excuse the horrible banding)...

[PeterM]

Interesting read for Hubble Space Telescope proposed follow up.
http://www.stsci.edu/hst/phase2-public/14487.pdf

[Greg Bock]

Ok, great news from the Hubble Space Telescope.
On March 19, using three images totalling 72 minutes, they found an almost complete ring which is an echo of the early SN light pulse scattered off of pre-existing interstellar material along the line of sight. It is about 5 to 6 times fainter than the SN, and bluer than the SN at very early times after explosion.

And, there may also be a brighter light echo closer to the SN, but it is too hard to tell right now due to processing residuals.

Atel here: http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8890

[strongmanmike]

Great and fascinating news boys :thumbsup:

Seeing "Marples et al" written in there must feel pretty cool too Peter :D

Mike

[Greg Bock]

yes, Mike, makes all the hundreds of hours imaging and checking images very worthwhile..

[DavidTrap]

My translation of the Atel is,"we've never seen this before, but we're calling it a light pulse!".

That's awesome. So is the resolution 0.03 arcsec/pixel!

Surely you must get an all expenses paid trip to some fancy conference for this boys???

DT

[rogerg]

Fascinating stuff, and that resolution sure is amazing! One day we'll have that capability ....

Has anyone seen an actual image from Hubble where they deduced this information from? I'd be interested to see it.:question:

[PeterM]

Thanks Mike, David and Roger.
It certainly is a wow factor to add to the discovery. I guess it means there will be a lot more follow up by professional astronomers and likely science papers will follow.
We haven't seen any images yet, though I am tempted to email Professor Ben Sugerman, but I'm sure we will see them in time.
Best
Peter

[astroron]

On the 15th of March I was able to see it visually through my 16" scope in excellent seeing and transparency, using 3.5mm nagler plus 2x barlow 1045xmag.
Was able to hold it a number of times both with averted and direct vision.
The supernova was plainly separated from the bright star close by.
The galaxy was very close to the meridian.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[DavidTrap]

Well done Ron - an experienced set of eyes must help that!

DT

[astroron]

Thanks David,:thanx:
Seeing and transparency like that night don't come along very often,
The seeing good enough to use a 3.5 mm eyepiece is a rare beast,but to be able to use double the magnification was just exceptional.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[PeterM]

I'm really happy you saw this visually Ron.
And yes while seeing and transparency as you said don't come along that often, you have been a dedicated and exceptional visual observer for as long as I have known you so I'm not in the least surprised you nailed it visually.
Well done indeed, thanks for all the good phone chats we have and thanks for always asking about my son Tyler.

[astroron]

Thank you Peter, it's been great knowing you for nearly 30 years.
I observed a 14.5 mag Supernova in NGC 3184 in Urser Major on the 29 last month. got to keep the eye in ;)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[madbadgalaxyman]

A quick summary of the situation regarding the dust-dimming and reddening of the light of SN 2016adj in NGC 5128.....
(from the astronomical telegrams)

The extremely high Visual (V-band) extinction of an estimated 2-4 mags (see: Atel 8657) in front of this supernova causes it to be a visually very unimpressive object (= "the SN is very dimmed & reddened due to dust within the dust lane"). This supernova was measured at near V-band ("visual") magnitude 15.2 or 15.7 (very discrepant measurements!) near to its discovery date, and with an observed B-V color index of 2.1 which indicates it was an extremely red object.(the supernova is now somewhat fainter than V magnitude 17 )

The dense screen of interstellar dust within the very-large-scale Warped Dust Disk of NGC 5128 both dims and greatly reddens the light of the supernova, so this makes it tough to figure out :
- what is its intrinsic (actual) luminosity ? ("energy output")
- what is its intrinsic (actual) colour ?
An accurate estimate of extinction and reddenning from interstellar dust in the line-of-sight of the supernova will be essential in order to reduce the very large uncertainties in these two parameters.

While not at all a supernova specialist, I suspect that the great uncertainty regarding the intrinsic luminosity and color of this supernova introduces uncertainty as to its exact type.

So one of the main tasks of the pros will be to get an accurate estimate of the extinction. (there is also "foreground" extinction and reddening from dust within our own Galaxy, that also has to be taken into account)

[andyc]

That's pretty cool news from Hubble! Definitely looking forward to seeing the images from there...

[Atmos]

That's quite interesting, it certainly is difficult to work out extinction when there is not any "markers" to compare against. The great thing about working out extinction of star clusters is that you have a lot of stars within a cluster to create a benchmark. Calculating the extinction caused by the Milky Way is not as difficult because we at least have that patch of sky to work with. Extinction within another galaxy, we have the supernova and thats it :(

This is where dealing with Type Ia supernovae are fantastic, they are considered to be standard candles because they shine with the same brightness (changes with size but it is very well modelled).

[madbadgalaxyman]

Colin, I gave a quick reply via IIS email system, as measuring extinction is well beyond the purpose of this particular forum.
__________________________________

Here are some pickings from the internet about the Supernova in NGC 5128:

As I understand it, the latest report indicates that Supernova 2016adj is actually of type IIb, which indicates that it is caused by the collapse of the core of a massive star, rather than being caused by a white dwarf going 'critical' due to mass accretion, or due to some other cause.
(The initial reports gave a different type for this supernova.)

Type II supernovae spectra have hydrogen lines, while type I spectra have none.
There are various subypes of Type II supernova: type II-L, type II-P, IIb, and IIn.
But all type II supernovae are thought to result from the collapse of the core of a massive star.

According to information which someone quotes on the internet from Wheeler and Benetti (2007), the light curve of a type IIb supernova (somewhat confusingly) resembles the light curve of a type I supernova!

A type IIb supernova has the following
features in its spectrum:
Broad and weak H lines ; strong He I lines ;


Here is a diagram from Turatto et al., arxiv 0706.1086 , outlining the classification of supernovae:

197253

Clear as daylight, folks?

But seriously, Turatto et al. is an excellent and readable paper on the classification of supernovae.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/0706.1086.pdf

[Atmos]

I may not have made myself over,t clear, the point I was trying to make is that the difficulty comes from it NOT being a Type 1a which are considerly easier to do calculations on.

That is a pretty neat diagram btw :) Type 1a are caused by white dwarfs, Type 1b&c are caused by stellar collapse.

[PeterM]

This is interesting.
New ATel noting sn2016adj has the earliest ever detection of CO in a supernova - as far as the authors are aware.
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=8976

[Camelopardalis]

They detected a central obstruction in a supernova :eyepop::screwy::lol: