A Nova in Sagittarius?

[avandonk]

I made an animated gif of last years and a couple of nights ago images of the Lagoon Trifid region and there is a 'new' star. It could be a variable.

Here is a crop of the animated gif 4.5MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2010_04/lt02.gif


There are also a couple of variables I think. The 'nova' is at top near center. The new star is in the image from Thursday night 15-04-2010.

I used Registar to match the two images in brightness contrast etc with the calibrate function.

Bert

[bojan]

Yes, nice red one :thumbsup: It is most likely a var (since it was there last year)
Do you have those phone numbers to call ? ;)

[bojan]

Actually, now I see two of them, when one is ON the other one is OFF...

[avandonk]

Bojan there is also an extra red star to the left of the Trifid Neb. The one dissapearing below the Trifid is a variable.

The really bright one is near top just to right of center.

[DavidU]

Good find. It looks the business.
Email them.

[bojan]

I see it...

[bojan]

You have another one..

[avandonk]

Bojan I am uploading the full image animated gif. It is 40MB but once it has loaded into your browser just click on any area and it will display at 100% pixel size.

There seem to be more. The image with the brighter trifid center and dimmest stars showing better is the latest image.

Fun for all the family spot the changes. My eyes are very tired after a long process. This was meant to be a quick bit of fun.

Bert

[astroron]

That's Cool Birt,:cool2: and Bojan for pointing them out:thumbsup:

[Rob_K]

Hi Bert - Nothing at all showing in that position in MAMA 1 SERC image accessed in Aladin (see overlay below). Funny thing is, I have sets of images of this area (at wider scale), for 11, 13, 16 April and there is little showing there at the sort of brightness you're showing. :shrug: But the sub for the 16th does seem to show something faint there, in the rough position as far as my sub-standard widefields allow, LOL! My shots aren't deep - taken to find bright objects mag 7-10.

Don't know how long you were imaging for - you'd expect an asteroid to move if subs were taken over an appreciable time.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[duncan]

Well Done Birt:thumbsup:
Cheers,
Duncan:)

[avandonk]

For some reason the large image won't download for me

here it is anyway 40MB

Now gone


I will make a smaller one

Bert

[avandonk]

This one will 8MB
http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2010_04/3k.gif

The image took 1.5 hours to collect. An asteroid would have disappeared with median stacking.

Just checked the 2m subs it is in all of them.




Bert

[avandonk]

I just realized that these images were collected on Saturday 17-04-2010 early morning from 3AM to 5.30AM twilight start as this region is not visible to me until after midnight.

I looked at the wrong directory for the dates.

Sorry about the confusion.

So Rob_k that fits in with your image. The nova was most probably brightening when you almost caught it.

I do not mind who notifies the relevant people. I have been up for three nights in a row and nearly out of fuel.

The important thing is to verify it is real and not a variable or slow asteroid etc.

Bert

[PeterM]

You are correct Bert a slow moving asteroid.

The one I see blinking "near top just to right of center" is to the right (south) of centre near a red star in the first image and this is Asteroid 27 Euterpe at mag 11.8. Approx 2.1AU from Earth at present. The 27th asteroid to be discovered - Euterpe - the Muse of music in Greek Mythology. Discovered in 1853 by J.R. Hind (discoverer of Hind's variable nebula and Hind's crimson star) at London. Assumed diameter 262km, currently moving at a slow 4.86 arc sec per hour.

The variable red star below the nebula is V1951. Max 8.3 mag / Min 14.8, period 510 days and is in the GCVS.

Good pick up and very lovely images as per usual.

PeterM.

[Vanda]

Amazing and interesting stuff. :)

[Rob_K]

Excellent stuff Peter! I've lost my asteroids from Starry Night, and can't seem to reload them. Bit of a pain in situations like this. :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[avandonk]

Thanks for that Bojan, PeterM and Rob_K I do not have the resources to check these things.

I suppose the take home message is to explore any possibility apart from the obvious.

I am clouded in and had no way to take more images to see if the new 'star' had moved.

It was far better to get others involved that have far more expertise or clear skies.

Bert

[astroron]

Thanks Birt, it was great watching this saga unfold:)
It shows the skills of the people on this site:thumbsup:

[Rob_K]

Got a shot last night, and for what it's worth, here's a rough animation of the asteroid's movement from 16 to 18 April 2010.

Cheers -

[PeterM]

Excellent Rob, really good, congratulations on the animation.

PeterM.

[avandonk]

I made an animated gif of Matt's image from this thread

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=585461#post585461

With my image.

Here it is 600k

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2010_04/Matt.gif

Bert

[PeterM]

CBET 2261 notes a possible Nova in Sagittarius, I wonder if anyone has this in any images you have taken? Worth a look if in the area.


Edit from CBET2261

"Nishiyama and Kabashima, Japan, report their discovery of a possible Milky Way nova (mag 11.2) on two 40-s unfiltered CCD frames (limiting magnitude 13.2) taken around Apr. 23.782 UT.... Following precise position for the variable: R.A. = 17h53m02s.98, Decl. = -28d12'19".4 (equinox 2000.0). Nothing is visible at this position on their survey frames taken on Apr. 2.831 (limiting mag 12.9) and 16.749 (limiting mag 13.1), nor on the Digitized Sky Survey from a red plate taken on 1996 Sept. 12 (limiting mag 17.5). A confirming image by Nishiyama and Kabashima with the 0.40-m reflector on Apr 24.673 yields mag 11.6 and position end figures 03s.00, 19".3. "

Peterm.

[avandonk]

It is out side my FoV's Peter see image below. Nova is at center of map image.

If the map FoV is 10 degrees or less in StarAtlasPro then Registar will happily match it to most images.

Bert

[Rob_K]

It appears to be a very reddened, very fast nova. My unfiltered DSLR shots showed nothing down to about mag 12 on Apr 22.611 and last night with deeper shots showed nothing down to mag 14 (Apr 24.695). V mags of 14.66 and 15.33 have been reported for times just after my shot. But an unfiltered CCD obs for Apr 24.673 gave mag 11.6 so maybe my camera is not picking up the reds too well. :shrug:

http://ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pipermail/vsnet-alert/2010-April/003559.html
http://ooruri.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pipermail/vsnet-alert/2010-April/003560.html

Cheers -