[von Tom (Tom)]

I was going through some old prints of mine and found a shot I took of the Supernova SN1987A in the LMC. I was 16 at the time at Downer in Canberra. The shot is over my house with a new Tasco 3T-RB 3" Newtonian in the foreground, and taken with a Pertri Racer rangefinder camera 45mm f/2.8. This was taken shortly after the discovery.

I remember on the night of discovery when I was lining up on the Tarantula Nebula in my x30mm finderscope (which was always a bit of a struggle to find), but for some reason I could find it quite easily that night. Before I could figure out why, I a bright light source in the sky over in Gemini caught my eye and I immediately thought "supernova!". Alas it was only a bright satellite, and I didn't return to the Tarantula to finish my train of thought. The moment of discovery had passed.

I would love to see any other pics or memories from the time. : )

Cheers,
Tom