Nova Lupus - Congratulations Rob K!!!

[Merlin66]

From the latest AAVSO Alert #637

Event: Nova in Lupus - N Lup 2018 = PNV J15384000-4744500

Discovered by: Rob Kaufman (Bright, Victoria, Australia) at White Cliffs, NSW, Australia (via CBET 4520)

Discovery magnitude: 9.1 unfiltered CCD magnitude, object visible in 5 DSLR frames taken with 55mm lens (via CBET 4520)

Discovery date: 2018 June 03.4306 UT (via CBET 4520)

Coordinates (2000.0): R.A. 15 38 43.86 Decl. -47 44 42.1 (from VSX)

Well done mate! Keep them coming.

[Rob_K]

Thanks Ken, much appreciated. :thumbsup: Pretty excited about it all, two novae in the last six months! I found it while on holidays in White Cliffs opal field in far-western NSW, absolutely cracker skies up here, very dark. Horizons to die for too!

I've attached the discovery image. The nova plummeted around a magnitude in brightness in the 24 hrs after discovery but has now stabilised in the low mag 10s.

Cheers -

[Merlin66]

Great stuff!!

Nova search seemed to be more popular in the 60’s and 70’s, but you show with some dedication results can be obtained with “basic” equipment.

Why did you use f6.3 on a 55mm lens? Just interested.

[Rob_K]

Thanks Ken. Nearly all galactic novae are now discovered by Japanese or Australian observers, don't know why that is. The Japanese guys are way in front though - leading 7-3 in 2018! :lol:

The lens I use is an F/5.6 55-200mm Sigma zoom lens, Canon mount. It is woeful and the lens aberrations are alarming. I back off a stop to F/6.3 to try to ameliorate that a little. In a perfect world I would be using a 50mm F/1.2 lens but I'm perpetually broke so just make do. :P

Galactic novae tend to be pretty bright and my frames are good for anything mag 11 or brighter. In good skies my LM is low mag 12s but anything much dimmer than mag 11 has a pretty low S/N ratio. Anyway, I've discovered two novae with this lens so maybe it's not too bad after all! ;) :lol:

Cheers -

[PeterM]

Really fabulous to read about your 2nd discovery Rob. Congratulations indeed.