BOSS supernova 47, and my 4th supernova discovery.

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
well, this is my 4th supernova discovery in just over 12 months since October last year, and it makes the 47th for BOSS.
I'm glad to say that the Aussie contingent of the BOSS team is picking up the pace a little at last!
Last night, I had taken about 140 galaxy images, and I discovered this new supernova after cheking about 70 images, at about magnitude 17.4R in a very pretty spiral galaxy that lies about 250 million light years away.
While I was checking those galaxy images, the scope was also taking a series of images of the new supernova, 2012fr in NGC1365. I had just finished about 17 minutes worth of images of NGC1365 when I had to stop imaging that galaxy and turn the scope onto a new faint object just west of the nucleus of NGC7298 that had just shown up in one of my SN search images .
It was just as well that I did that because NGC7298 was at a very low elevation of 25 degrees and setting slowly behind the observatory wall.
Luckily, I managed to get 18 30 second images under poor seeing conditions before it set behind the wall that were good enough to show that the new object was still visible, 3 hours after I had originally imaged it.
My luck also stretched out to tonight as well. I have just received advice that an Italian team imaged the new supernova 5 hours after I lodged the report on the Central Bureau's TOCP website. They report that the new object is a highly reddened type II supernova a few days after explosion.
If you wish to see this one, i have provided a finder chart here.
Also, it seems that we haven't kept up to date with the last 3 discoveries of the BOSS team. Sorry about that, I guess we have all been very busy lately.
If you would like to see some details of our previous discoveries, please visit our website here for the latest list of our discoveries.

STOP PRESS - my latest images of the new supernova show that it is brightening quite fast..will post the latest pic as soon as i can.

http://bosssupernova.com/
Clear skies,

[rogerg]

Congrats again ... and again... and again... :)

[astroron]

Well done Greg:thumbsup:
I don't think this one will get bright enough
to observe in my scope:question:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Greg Bock]

And here is tonight's image...happy hunting..gtg to bed now, only 4 hours sleep last night.

[Greg Bock]

you never know Ron, until you give it a try mate..

[rogerg]

Interesting. In my photo's of it I'm taking now I can't distinguish it from the core of NGC 7298.

[jjjnettie]

Congratulations!!!

[rogerg]

Here's my attempt.

10 x 180 seconds.
12" SCT @ 3080mm fl (f/10)
ST8 bin 2x2 @ -25
Image has been stacked (average combine), resized to 150% and sharpened in Photoshop.

I'm ashamed of the image quality. Trailing, awful reduction (both flat and dark), awful separation of the SN from the core.

Viewing conditions were average to poor, enormous star flicker and some cloud about.

[cometcatcher]

Congratulations Greg!

This one's too teensy and faint for me though.

[Greg Bock]

Hi Roger,
well, i wouldn't be ashamed of the image quality if I were you...not much you can do about the sky conditions. It seems that both you and Stu in NZ had poor seeing conditions compared to me on the east coast for a change. Usually, it's the other way around! Cloud rolled in shortly after my last exposure above, so I was lucky to get that image too.

[mental4astro]

:thumbsup:

On ya Greg!

[Terry B]

Well done!!

[Forgey]

Awesome, well done!

[entity62]

Well done Greg.
I look forward too seeing if my video camera can pick this up. bring on the clear skies.

[Suzy]

Congratulations Greg on #4- and what an achievement- four in the last 12 months and two of them were back to back (we were biting our nails in anticipation waiting on that hat trick- oh the pressure...!) which didn't happen BUT you nabbed the next one in good time anyway. It was the end of last year I believe when you got two in a row- I won't forget the excitement of that time easily.

Also a big congratulations to the BOSS team- I am just so ridiculously proud of you guys for such a great achievement. Great work team!
I really wish I could do what you guys are doing but if I'm going to be the next Sue French, I have to put my head down and keeping looking through that tube! Then again, I might surprise you by doing a Bob Evans on you :P :lol:
:question:hmmm only one emoticon up there... soon fix that!

:cheers: CONGRATULATIONS!!! :jump::jump2:

[ausastronomer]

Well done Greg,

I will give this a fly visually next week from Coonabarabran in the 30" SDM.

Cheers,
John B

[Greg Bock]

:eyepop:Whooa John, 30", that's just plain cheating. :) You'll need your sunnies too.

[Greg Bock]

thanks guys, sorry its only a tiny one...i'm still kicking myself for missing the one in NGC1365 by one lousy day....Now that was THE SN find of the year!!

And, considering i did the confirmation image of 2001du in NGC1365 for Bob Evans in August 2001 at 4am, it would have been the icing on the cake to find the latest SN in NGC1365 for myself.

Oh well, back to the scope to find number 5.

[ausastronomer]

I need a head start Greg. It would be a very good get in the 10" SDM :)

It's going to be tough in the 30 at mag 17+

Cheers,
John B

[allan gould]

This is getting soooooo routine, but well done you deserve it - all of you

[Greg Bock]

Hi Allan,
Bob Evans asked me about some stats today, so I prepared the numbers below for him, and since I thought some people here may also be interested, I have copied them here too.

You make an interesting comment. Yes, we certainly designed our search programs to give us results as routine as possible because finding these things is simply a numbers game, and efficiency of imaging and then searching each one is so important.

To give you an idea, here are my SN search stats to date:
· For 10 years, from 2001 to 19 October 2011 to find number 1, SN2011gv, about 50,000 images.!!! Founds lots, just wasn’t first. I did take heaps of confirmation images for other discoverers, such as Bob Evans though.
· Between 19 October 2011 and 27 December 2011 for number 2, SN2011jp, 1362 images in 2 months,
· Between 27 December 2011 and 2 September 2012 for number 3, SN2012fd, 6593 images in 9 months…(I discovered this in one of Stu Parker’s images..a true collaboration)
· Between 2 September 2012 and 5 November 2012 for number 4, SN2012??, 1599 images in 2 months.

[gary]

Hi Greg,

Congratulations to you and the BOSS team! An extraordinary effort.

Your statistics in the post above echo what Rob McNaught said to me once when it came
to comet hunting. Rob said your chances of discovering a comet are not good if
you have never discovered one before.

Once again, well done! Like a supernova itself, we are all blown away!

Best Regards

Gary

[PeterM]

Onya Bockie,

We are pretty much even stevens now. Time for me to pull my finger out and get stuck into more imaging (as I looks to the grey skies above).

The numbers posted are significant and show the dedication needed in this type of work.
The rewards.... hmmm lets see.. you don't have your name attached (like comet discoverers) just a catalogue number. Nor is there any fame attached (like comet discoverers often get). Nor are there many beautiful images taken by a squillion amateurs (like many comet discoveries get)... ok granted Martin Pugh has taken a stunning image of NGC1365 (in the Deep Space forum) with its recent SuperNova SN2012fr. Nor are there any financial rewards (unlike there are for amateur Comet discoverers) ................hmmmm starting to get a bit worried the wife says change your focus in the hobby!
I suppose on the otherside if Comet xyz that you discovered was to collide with us then we wouldn't want any association with it anyways... might bad for your health long before it collided hehe. Ok just joshing (if Mr Lovejoy aka cometguy reads - whom by the way is one of mine and Greg's great mates for the last 29 years). We obviously congratulate all amateurs who have any input into astronomy in anyway.

So why do we do it? Well I guess it's just one area of this infectious hobby that gets in your blood. I hope others reading of our achievements are excited, encouraged and inspired, this will be our reward.

Good one Bockie!
PeterM

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
Happy to announce that the new SN in NGC7298 has now been designated as SN2012gc by the Central Bureau of Astronomical Telegrams. (CBAT)
So, my number 4 (and BOSS number 47) is now official!

[jjjnettie]

:D Fantastic. :D

[cometcatcher]

Good stuff Greg.

I may have missed it, but has the type been identified and possible peak brightness yet?

[Greg Bock]

The new SN is a reddened type II a days after discovery (the exact type of Type II hasn't been published yet, ie..P,n) and I haven't imaged it since discovery due to wind and/or clouds, so I can only assume that at the moment it brightness is somewhere around magnitude 17.

Waiting for clear skies to get a much better image than my last 2 at the time of my discovery.