13 Unlucky for some, not Stu!

[PeterM]

In keeping IIS members right up to date with the very latest, hot off the press news, almost as it happens.....

Last night while enjoying the company of close friends at a Mexican themed dinner night and lamenting here I am away from the scope under a a perfect sky (first in ages) Greg Bock & I received an SMS alert from Stu Parker in NZ about the possible discovery of his 13th Supernova in IC5249 at a bright magnitude 14.9
IC5249 is a lovely edge on spiral in Tucana and worthy of follow up here by IIS imagers. This may be brightening.

Using the new CBAT reporting Greg was able to have it listed under the PSN (Possible Supernova Page) very promptly indeed, while I watched on in supervision... well we were still drinking some very fine alcoholic beverages, so we couldn't get it wrong. Plus we risked the wrath of our wives to ask our hosts if we could borrow their computer for a while, it was inbetween desert.

Now I say PSN even though we have confirming images, under the new system until a spectra identifies the suspect as a Supernova it remains a PSN.

Stu made contact with our professional astronomer friend Nidia at Las Campanas observatory in Chile, she promptly replied that she was at a conference in the USA celebrating 10 years of operation of the 6.5m Magellan telescopes. From here she then contacted a colleague working on the 100inch scope at Las Campanas and we hope to have the spectra today! Professionals really do value the work that amateurs put in.

And all this in less than 12 hours, folks amateur astronomy can really move at a lightning pace.

Now of course lets take nothing away from our Stu and congratulate him on what will almost certainly be his 13th discovery, mind you he took over 2000 images in 3 nights!

I have attached Stu's family pic of the new member!

Some even more amazing news is about to come from Stu shortly, he is indeed moving in some very, very interesting professional circles, I won't steal his thunder here, he will no doubt tell us all about it soon.

And all this comes about from discoveries made in tin sheds across the universe. This has got to send shivers up your spine just like it does for me every time, yes anyone can contribute to the science of this hobby, love it.

PeterM.

[Park123 (Stu)]

Thanks Pete,

Things worked out very well but what about this....I had just alerted the Guys as we normally do.....but they were out for tea spending quality time with their Wife’s and Friends. I had some issues posting the PSN on the TOCP page when the guys came to the rescue and helped out...well if that’s not dedication then I don’t know what is!!!.

As Greg said"-Last night’s effort here involved a friends laptop, lots a alcohol and fuzzy heads, a dim memory of an error on the Tocp page, and some very understanding wives in the middle of a social event, but we got the message onto the tocp page eventually"

Just great guys well done and thanks alot for that.
This PSN took me a month to find and over 4000 images 2000 in the past 2 nights. But the hard work is worthwhile when you have support from friends like that and we can all enjoy the discovery.

Stu

[astroron (Ron)]

Thanks Peter,and well done Stu
It looks like an early morning observation as it is behind some trees till about 02.30 I will endeavour to try tonight observe it weather permitting
Cheers

[Ric]

Congrats Stu

All those long hours have paid off.

It certainly jumps out of the image.

Top stuff

[Brian W (Brian)]

Very nice and as often happens chance and luck favours those who do the ground work. Keep up the good work.
Brian

[Octane (Humayun)]

Excellent work! How exciting.

One day I wish to have the ability to have a go at this type of astronomy.

Thanks for the inspiration.

H

[Robh (Rob)]

Congratulations Stu.

Nice capture!

Regards, Rob

[Rob_K]

Congratulations Stu, now confirmed in CBET 2711 as Supernova 2011cb!
http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/cbet/RecentCBETs.html

Cheers -

[PeterM]

Hi all,
Just heard from our professional astronomer colleague at Las Campanas observatory (Chile) that this supernova is now getting quite a bit of attention from professional astronomers at Las Campanas and CTIO. She notes there will be one if not several scientific papers on this particular SN. Goes to show that YES you as a contributing amateur astronomer are very important to the ongoing science of Astronomy. Will keep you posted on this development. By the way the spectra was obtained using the Dupont 100inch telescope, check it out at the site below.
PeterM

http://www.lco.cl/telescopes-information/irenee-du-pont

http://www.lco.cl/

[gary]

Congratulations Stu! What fabulous dedication.

Thanks Peter for the heads-up. Hope you find one soon too!

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by gary

Congratulations Stu! What fabulous dedication.

Thanks Peter for the heads-up. Hope you find one soon too!

Hi Gary! Hope you and Mai are well.

Still looking for more SN to compliment my 3 discoveries (I have set a target of 10) SN200fa in NGC6722, 2009J IC2160 independent and 2009gd in NGC5967.

The BackyardObservatorySupernovaSearch (BOSS) collaboration was born out of this and more recently Stu has certainly been the main contributor with his 13 discoveries.
Infact from my early discoveries I thought I would see if professional astronomers would be interested in amateur astronomers and how we could contribute, the response has been incredible, they really value and thank us for our contributions to their projects - to the point we have an invitation to spend a night or 2 at Las Campanas Observatory!

I still remember those days back in 2002 when I was pestering you about how soon I could get my hands on an Argo Navis, man what a revolution you started. Nine years later despite all the technology I have been exposed to in hardware and product, Argo Navis and your support of it have never been topped by anyone. Software Bisque and StarlightXpress are very, very good. But you were then and from what I read now, a few notches up the rung.

Maybe see you both at Astrofest this year?
PeterM.

[ngcles]

Hi Peter, Stu & All,

Add my congratulations on this discovery in one of my favourite southern edge-on galaxies Stu -- well done mate!

I observed this supernova up at Mudgee on 7 May 2011 at around 3am AEST with 46cm at x247 and visually it was a bit fainter, possibly a half magnitude fainter than the faint star (can't find a magnitude on this one) on-axis just inside the northern tip of the galaxy (see the image).

Averted vision job on the galaxy and the supernova -- the star at the tip was intermittent with direct vision. I'd reckon the visual magnitude on the supernova is probably low (faint) 15s. SQM-L reading about a 1/2 hour before was 21.52, very good seeing. Galaxy at about 30-odd degrees elevation. This is a very tough galaxy to observe due to its extremely LSB -- a fact that makes such a faint supernova easer to visually observe because of the lack of bright (well relatively so) background of the host galaxy.

Brian Skiff advises that the UCAC3 provides a magnitude for the star at the tip of the galaxy of ~15.5 -- putting 2001cb at low (faint) magnitude 15s or approximately mag 16 -- the faintest supernova I've ever observed so far (of about 10-odd).

Well done Stu and thanks for the spectacle!


Best,

Les D