nova in sag

[fringe_dweller]

I'm surprised no one bothered to mention this one?

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/19/australian-observatory-first-to-capture-new-nova-in-sagittarius/

[ngcles]

Hi Fringe Dweller & All,

This classical nova event is now a faint naked-eye object (simple binocular target) at he following position:

RA 18 05 58.9 Dec-27 13 56 and was measured on Aprl 23.12 UT at mag +5.65.

It is in the same field with the very faint and difficult G.C NGC 6540, about 1/2 degree NNW of the cluster.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[fringe_dweller]

Thankyou Les! naked eye Nova's, even faint ones, used to generate a bit more interest in times past *scratches head* :)

[Greg Bryant]

Hi Kearn,

Keep in mind that this nova was not naked eye to begin with. It got some hype, but really didn't reach the threshold for general amateur interest.

Having been a subscriber to the IAU service for nearly 2 decades, I use to run the "Astrocard" service for the Astronomical Society of New South Wales, from 1991 up until a few years ago when it was folded. At its peak, it had several hundred keen amateurs interested. Even then, a 5th magnitude comet would be of far more interest than a 5th magnitude nova, as an example.

A nova really needs to get a few magnitudes brighter than 6th to warrant popular attention.

Regards,
Greg

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Greg,
ok, i'm not much of a nova follower, just saw it on my net travels and thought i'd share it here, and i can believe it regarding the comets vs nova's lol! ive had a few doses of the comet fever myself at times!
thanks

[Ian Robinson]

Was a time I would have been out there in the cold observing it and recording my estimates of it's visual magnitude , at mag 6 , it's an easy target for my 20x80 binos which is what I would have used rather than the 10" newt.

A comparison chart for it wont be far off if Matty is still on the ball.

Anyone interested in making some actual scientific observations of it might find the AAVSO's chart generator program handy http://www.aavso.org/observing/charts/vsp/index.html?pickname=N%20TrA%2008 to produce a chart to get started with until someone makes a better comparison chart. Pretty easy and pretty quick (see attachment), worth bookmarking !!:)

The idea is to choose two comparison stars of known brightness that the variable / nova is inbetween in brightness , estimate linearly (scale of 4 - 10 increments guessometrically) how far the object's brightness is fainter and brighter than the brighter and fainter comparison stars , not the time and date , and come back for another squiz at it a few hours later , or a the next day , or the next week , depending on how steap the light curve is.
The numbers are magnitudes 102 = 10.2

I'm sure the AAVSO or you local club's variable star group will accept you measurements and forward them to AAVSO or NZASVSS or BAAVSS.

This is a great way for beginner and not so beginner amateurs to actually feel that they are contributing to science in a real way.