Eta Carinae getting brighter ?

[skysurfer]

When I watch Eta Carinae (the star) with my 15x70 binos or Genesis it appears brighter than specified in Skysafari, it appears as bright as the neighboring +5 stars, while it is specified as +6.3. Does it really brighten ?

[Simon Holmes]

Eta is currently at +4.6 magnitude.
Will it explodes in our life time and if it does, will it be bright enough to throw shadow and be visible in the daytime???????????

[pmrid]

I was living in the northern hemisphere in 1987 and missed the supernova in the LMC, so it would be a real privilege to be able to see EtaCar go off in my lifetime.
Peter

[Poita]

It could do so, there was an interesting article on it years ago:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0336/

Of course it may well have exploded 5000 years ago, but we wouldn't know for another few thousand.
It still amuses me that many of the stars we 'see' may have been gone for a very long time.

[ballaratdragons]

I think the same way about any Radio signals from beings on another world.
By the time we get their signal the beings have probably been extinct for the last 5000 years since they sent the message :lol:

[CarlJoseph]

Thought you might be interested in this article about the variable brightness of Eta Carinae.

http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2012/harry-observes-the-incredible-vanishing-spectrum-of-the-massive-star-or-double-star-eta-carinae/

[Rodstar]

Great link, Carl, thanks for that.

[Screwdriverone]

I thought the same thing last weekend when I put the canon on the Homonculus for a test shot and thought it was brighter than I thought it was last time.....

Here is the shot, nothing done to it apart from black point setting and resized for IIS.

See what I mean?

Exposure was for 30 secs at ISO 1600. Taken On Sun 12/2/2012 at 2:00am AEST.

Cheers

Chris

[Tom Hancock]

Great stuff Chris.
Now this more resembles the view through a telescope then those colorful photos on the internet.

[Suzy]

Thanks for the link Carl, interesting reading. :thumbsup:

Chris, I love the widefield pic! Nice! :D

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Suzy,

Although its not a good one, only 30 secs and noisy as hell, with awful coma around the edges....

But thanks....:)

Cheers

Chris