Hi Ron & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron
Rob, with the information from Les, and at around Mag 15.7 I don't think it will be visible in even the largest Amateur telescopes 
It is also quite close to the nucleus, so if it even got down to Mag 14.7 it would be a difficult target for a visual observation. |
Agree completely Ron. The brightness is not the issue here -- a stellar object of mag mid 15's against "normal" sky is not a problem to see in 40cm or larger 'scopes.
The problem is seeing it against a
relatively bright background like the inner halo of M66.
And yes Sean, a 12" is a perfectly sensible telescope to use for supernovae searches. I'd think if you could compile a list of galaxies out to say 40 million ly distant, in many of those any supernovae in the galaxy will be visible under a dark sky provided you are an experienced observer. The best way to become experienced is to look at a
lot of galaxies.
Rev Bob Evans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Evans_(astronomer)
discovered several supernovae using a 10" though he moved on to 16" later. His big advantage is both experience and an ability to memorise the visual appearance of 1000s of galaxies and the stars around and embedded within them. Bob can tell at a glance whether something "new" is there. His visual searches run at about 60-80 galaxies per/hr and can easily cover several hundred in a session -- all found manually and from memory.
Not worthy to carry that man's sandles ...
Best,
Les D