A Rogue Star Going Wild?

[glenc]

"Attention, astronomers! Please keep a close eye on Eta Carinae! It's acting up again."

OK, that's not exactly how Dan Green worded the announcement in IAU Circular 9094 on November 11th, but the gist of his alert was crystal clear. Observations made last August with Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), now back in action (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/52369857.html) after failing in 2004 (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3309391.html), show that one of the most massive and unstable stars known has surged in brightness over the past six months. Now at magnitude 5.1, it's fairly easy picking with the unaided eye for southern-sky observers. And there's every indication that more surprises are in the offing.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/75160377.html

[mozzie]

thanks glenc something may happen over the coming months
mozzie

[Enchilada]

Eta Car is varying between 4.1 and 4.7 magnitude over the last month or so.

THE AAVSO Raw data for 2009 till now can be easily viewed at;
http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/newql.pl?name=Eta%20Car&output=html

Suitable charts of the comparison magnitudes are available at;
http://www.aavso.org/news/etacar.shtml#charts

[glenc]

Here is David Frew's historical record for eta Carinae. (7.8Mb) http://geosn.com/
In 1844 it was mag minus one, brighter than Canopus but fainter than Sirius.

[Enchilada]

Read it. Love it. Would recommend something that should have been read by every Aussie amateur worth his salt.

Imagine what the maximum -0.8 red star looked like half-way between the Cross and Canopus. I only dream something like this happens before I leave this mortal coil!! :eyepop:

[jjjnettie]

I wanna be imaging in that direction when it goes off.
What a sight that would be.

[TrevorW]

May of already happened JJ

[Enchilada]

You probably might need a set of neutral density filters or perhaps a solar filter, as you might damage the camera!

If eta Car goes off it would be over -11 or -12, all tightly concentrated in a near point source, so you might need sunglasses too! Worst still, you might not be able to use a telescope towards it, as it may damage your eyes - permanently! (Remember, the Moon's magnitude is spread over a half-a-degree disk! The supernova focuses like a laser-beam, being 16,000 times brighter than Sirius!)

[FredSnerd]

Yep. I've been doing some research and on my calculations I reckon she's set to blow on about 21 December 2012. Oh Owe!

[JimmyH155]

That's funny???:shrug: Isn't something else supposed to happen on that date???:D:D

[Ric]

It certainly will be a spectacular sight, but I reckon it will ruin the deep sky viewing for a while.

We may have to move to the northern hemisphere.

[Kevnool]

Kev may have is sunnies on at night.

Or when everybody else in the world have there eyes towards Eta Car it may be time to look elsewhere for a discovery of some type.

Anyway Cheers Kev.

[Blue Skies]

Makes me glad that we're in the southern hemisphere, we'll have front row seats on the show.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Oh good. Eight months of cloud and now a bleeding supernova.
Interestimg for about an hour.
Might as well have stayed in the city and gazed at car headlights. Tch!:rolleyes::)

[FredSnerd]

What if it goes boom and then everyone turns out that night to watch the spectacular light show and all seems wonderful and grand but then the next day your in bed with bandages on your eyes only something doesnt seem right because its a Monday morning only it sounds like a Sunday and someone was gonna come and take your bandages off today to see if you could see again only no ones coming and you can hear people bumping into furniture and stuff. WHAT THEN!!!!!

[jjjnettie]

We all know what happens next Claude.
The Triffids come and start killing everyone.

[FredSnerd]

I Know!!!! I'm scared!!!

[jjjnettie]

Just keep a couple of buckets of salt water near the front door. You'll be all right.

[JimmyH155]

what is the salt water for, jjjnettie?? Cane toads, slugs? What about garlic for the werewolfs

[jjjnettie]

You water Triffids with salt water to kill 'em.

[renormalised]

Won't matter where you are, the light from the explosion will lighten the sky up considerably...your best bet for a dark(ish) sky would be northern Canada, northern Siberia or the Arctic.

[citivolus]

Nah, the aurora is too active there to call those places dark sky :)

I've had people call me crazy for complaining about aurora. I just hated it getting in the way.

[seanliddelow]

I got about 65 years left.......
Call you in heaven when it happens!:thumbsup:
I think that its already exploded but the photons have to get here.....

[glenc]

I was just reading that the Veil nebula "was likely as bright as a crescent Moon (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051113.html), remaining visible for weeks" about 7,500 years ago.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

[citivolus]

I was trying to figure out how this would be possible, and how the nova would not have masked the nebula from view, until I remembered that you would be seeing the reflected light shell, so if the supernova had already faded substantially by the time the reflection via the nebula arrived at the Earth, you would be able to see it.

[Ric]

That would have been a spectacular sight in ancient Egypt, I wonder if they ever recorded it. :question:

[ngcles]

Hi Glen & All,

Took a good long look at this last night (13122009) at about 2am when it had enough altitude. It is definitely brighter than last year and in my 'scope makes it a bit more challenging now to see the Homunculus Nebula well.

After comparing with about 1/2 dozen nearby stars between mag 4.06 and 4.96 I'd estimate between mag 4.35 to 4.45 -- using the 'scope and naked eye. Happily there are a several useful K-type stars within 1.5 degrees that can be used to minimise the Purkinje effect.

In some ways it'd be nice to be around to witness the death of this famous star, but sadly it would destroy the Homunculus Nebula -- one of my favourite objects and kill any hope of a properly dark-sky for maybe 3-4 months.

Watching the light-echoes through the Eta Carinae complex (NGC 3372) would be fascinating -- but would take a couple of hundred years to see ...


Best,

Les D

[GrahamL]

Salt water ? .. I thought triffids hated country music :shrug:

[Jen]

:thumbsup: cool thanks for the heads up yeah would be awsome to see :thumbsup: