Supernover in M51

[astroron (Ron)]

Hi all if you can see M51 from your location and you have a 20cm scope or higher go to this web site http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/ to down load an image to see a 13.5 mag supernover. in the smaller scopes you will need high mag but it will help your observing skills . astroron

[asimov (John)]

Thanks for that..I'll certainly check it out IF it ever clears up here!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Can we see it from your place Ron, or will it be too low in the north?

[astroron (Ron)]

Paul M51 is +47deg and gets about 10degs above my horizon It would have been visible tonight but the clouds rolled in as I was preparing to start observing.
With a little bit of luck we will be able to see it tomorrow night,even though it is fairly low. Astroron

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

When did the clouds roll in? Its been beautiful here tonight

[Orion]

Thanks for the info Ron.
I went to the Bright Supernova website to see if I could spot the supernova but M51 is about 8 or 9 degs from the horizon from where I live and I don't like my chances considering you have to look through the glow of Newcastle.

[Greg Bryant]

The supernova in M51 (discovered by a German amateur) has been found to be a young one, caught on the rise. A red giant star, found on archive Hubble images, has been identified as a possible candidate star that exploded.

Fortunately, M51 is positioned as best as can be for us in the Southern Hemisphere, though you're really going to have to be in northern Australia, given its far northern declination. Maybe some of our Northern Hemisphere forum members could describe their views?

I've seen reports from the last few days of brightness measurements as good as magnitude 13.5, and this supernova could still potentially brighten further (though watch out for a foreground star if you're trying to identify the newcomer).

[astroron (Ron)]

After some frustration because of clouds and poor seeing was able to make a tentative observation of the supernover,using an image from the DeepSkyCCD Atlas and the Thompson Galaxy Supernova Search Charts Plus my knowledge of this galaxy which I have observed quite a few times over the last few years I was fairly certain of my observation of the supernova.
I will check again tomorrow night weather permitting
.astroron

[iceman (Mike)]

Lucky buggers, got no hope at -33S.

Take some images!

[astroron (Ron)]

I had a much better observation of M51 tonight and made a possative observation, with this galaxy being so far north and low down I lose about half a mag due to atmosphere but was still able to see the Supernova in moments of fair seeing there is a 13.2 mag star close by which to compare the supernova by and I estimate it to be 14mag .
Unfortunatly I don'tdo astroimaging with the 16"so carn't help. astroron

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

I will have a look with my 10" Dob here in Nhulunbuy tomorrow night.
at 12.5 Deg South M51 is an easy pick up from here.
BRB tonight looking for the comet ! (Found it finally)