Another Nova in Scorpius!!

[jjjnettie]

:eyepop: It's only 3 degrees away from the first one. V1281 Scorpii.
http://skytonight.com/observing/home/Nova-Sco-2007.html
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5215

[DobDobDob]

Blimey, I wouldn't be investing in real estate in Scorpius at the moment, the whole neighbourhood is exploding :wink2:

[jjjnettie]

Star Wars?

[h0ughy]

wow, Scott might have caught that one as well as Bert , anyone else imaged it after that time?

[DobDobDob]

This could start a whole new area of science, I bet you there haven't been too many (if any) records of Nova, so close and so soon before, surely a Guinness Book of Records entrant :P

[tornado33]

Nope, darn missed it by about 1 degree in DEC
Oh well, gee odd for 2 novae to go off in the one place?
Scott

[Ric]

That's amazing, something big must have happened there a few thousand years ago. I wonder whats next.

Cheers

[Shawn]

jjj has it, a couple civilisations upset each other, blowing up your enemy's sun Is one sure fire way to get their attention...


:rofl:

[gaa_ian]

Amazing, whats the chance !

[avandonk]

I have made a map with Star Atlas Pro and put a red dot at the coords of the second nova and then overlayed it on an image with the first nova taken on 18-02-2007 at 4AM. The image has the first nova almost dead center.
I dont think the second nova is visible yet in this image. I will image it when the clouds go away!
The FOV is 6.8x4.6 degrees.
Bert

[avandonk]

Here are a couple of crops showing the same field from the previous two images showing where the nova2 is ie the red cross.

Hope this helps

Bert

[xstream]

Interesting with those last two crops Bert, I reckon it's just visible. Or maybe I'm seeing spots before my eyes. :)

[avandonk]

I think you are correct here are three images of exactly the same region the purple pic was taken in july 2006 with an 85mm lens. The red marker was placed as accurately as possible but it may be a bit out.

Bert

[h0ughy]

this is exciting, thanks Bert! Now allwe need is the next image to show it now?

[avandonk]

Yep the next image hopefully tomorrow morning will tell us if it was caught so early. You have got to hand it to the discoverers. It is hard to find even if you know where to look.

Bert

[xstream]

Going by the third I think it is it.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's image now, Bert.

[DobDobDob]

Okay, here's a thought, what are the odds of a third Nova within the next few months in the same region? A large number no doubt, but would you have answered the same just 3 days ago...

I would keep these images, just in case ;)

[avandonk]

I never erase original RAW and JPG images Ron. Maybe that is why I have TB's of hard drives. I also forgot to thank jjjnettie for the heads up.

Thanks for the heads up jjjnettie.

Bert

[DobDobDob]

These images you have kept may be a turning point in our understanding of Nova, already the recent events are causing great interest, and from our point of view, it has only just begun. I agree with you in thanking jjjnettie.

[Argonavis]

Scorpius is towards the galactic centre. Lots of stars in that direction, without the extensive obscuring interstellar clouds in Sagittarius. There have been a fair few nova in this area over the years.

[DobDobDob]

2 in 3 days only 3 degrees apart seems unusual to me, how far in real terms would 3 degrees be?

[ballaratdragons]

Here is an animation of Berts pics showing the faint Nova appearing. It isn't visible in the july 2006 pic (purplish one). Nova appears under the red dot, then dissappears in the earlier purplish image.

[erick]

Ron, your field of view in your 20x80s will be between 3 and 4 degrees if that helps. To calculate more exactly, read off the bins - ???ft at 1000 yards (??? somewhere around 200?) and do some trigonometry. Orion's belt is a good real test - see how much of the belt you get into your field of view and look up the spacings.

[erick]

Perhaps you meant, how far (in light years) between the two nova. That is a question for the professional astronomers!

[DobDobDob]

Yes I meant in LY's

[DobDobDob]

I'll try that tonight if I get a hole in the clouds :(

[erick]

Sorry. jumped to conclusions and then explained how to "suck eggs". :ashamed:

[DobDobDob]

Hehehehehe :lol: I'm glad you took the time to answer, it doesn't mater that your answer was to a different question :whistle:

Just getting back to the original point, in astronomical terms, what seems close to us, may in fact be a very long distance apart if one of the Nova is close (in the foreground) and the other is larger (further back in the background), if we are seeing them head on, we sense them as close but they may be a very long way apart.

[ballaratdragons]

The angular distance may be only a few degrees, but the distance from one to the other could be enormous. One could be close to us and the other could be faaaarrrrr from us, making them not even close to each other.

EDIT: Oops, sorry Ron, you just said that! :lol:

[DobDobDob]

DOH!!!! I just said that, look under your post :lol: :lol: :lol:

[DobDobDob]

We are synchronised in space time :thumbsup:

[ian musgrave]

G'Day All

UPDATE: I messed up the location of V1280 on the maps. This time I did the right thing by adding the novae location via SkyMaps (http://www.skymap.com/) quick catalog feature.

I've made a replacement spotters map (roughly the field of view of 10x50 binoculars) which you can download from
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5468/437/1600/599981/Nova_Scorpii2_Binocular_Chart_26-02-07.jpg
I've attached a reduced size version of the correct chart to this message. Latest reports put the new nova at around magnitude 6, up from around 8 before. It may brighten more or just fade away, but I'll have a look this morning.

Updated 26/02/07 It is back down to magnitude 9.0.

[avandonk]

The first image is both novae in Scorpio taken 26-02-2007 at 4AM+. Second image is from the 18-02-07 at 4AM. Third is the same field from image one. As Max would say, missed by that much!

Bert

[avandonk]

Here is an image with both novae marked with a line below them.

Bert

[ian musgrave]

The images look great! I got up at 4:30 to have a look with binoculars, saw nothing down to magnitude 8. I feel a lot btter now knowing someone imaged it successfully.

[DobDobDob]

It's been raining in Sydney for the last couple of days, but hopefully soon I might get the chance to take a peek. This latest image pretty well says it all, as far as I am concerned, they are almost next door neighbours :whistle:

[avandonk]

Here is a higher resolution image of both novae. The FOV is 6.8x4.6 degrees.
1MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cheekyfish/SCO_2NOVAE.jpg

Bert