Just a heads up for I.I.S ers, a supernova has been recorded in the galaxy M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, check APOD for more information and links. For those of you up north it may be an worthwhile object to image or just eyeball !
Hi Jeff
I've just built an observatory east of Melbourne and was tweaking the system a couple of nights ago. Even though the wind was affecting my viewing I took a look at NGC5363 and think I captured a supernova. Unfortunately the weather is still windy and now, very cloudy down here and I can't corroborate this myself. There is no mention of it in CBAT etc and there are no asteroids or variables listed.
The PSN is about 7 arcsecs south-west of the galactic centre.
If the weather is more clement your way have a look.
Marek
Hi Marek
Interesting news that you've spotted a possible candidate in NGC 5363, unfortunately I haven't read your report until too late, Virgo is slipping behind the neighbours roofline, so wont get a chance till tomorrow night. What P.A. from the galaxys' nucleus and what magnitude do you estimate.
Anyone else out there care to make an observation or image to compare with earlier images to confirm or negate this possible supernova.
Hi Marek,
Here is the DSS red survey image and a 30 second image I took tonight North is up. Fairly ordinary night but I don't see anything SW, 7 arc sec is close to the nucleus, though the DSS image has a slight darkening. What magnitude were you estimating? How long was your exposure?
PeterM.
Hi Peter and Jeff
Thanks for your replies.
I took a few 30 sec exposures over an hour or so and have attached positive and negative renditions. Not sure what you mean by P.A. Jeff but my software esimated the magnitude to be around 9.5 (initial raw estimate).
Peter, I thought that if you play around with the pixel values on your image you might pull something out, otherwise I have more glitches in my equipment than I, at first, thought.
Still lousy skies here and will continue for a few days more.
Seems this has caught a few others over the years, I found some references to images taken in 2005 with same "what's this object". Clearly my 30 second image burns that area out, often an issue when dealing with ellipticals. My searches focus on spirals. The object is real, shows well in a processed image I just got from Greg Bock below. The link below also shows it. Either way good pickup. Always get excited about the possibility. http://www.astrophotos.net/pages/GAL...NGC%205363.htm
While position angle is useful a simple arrow next to an attached image with suspect more than suffices.
Thanks for all the follow up especially Peter. I'll give you a call tomorrow.
I looked at ALADIN and generated a map but it showed no OBVIOUS ob jects in that region. Still a mystery. I won't have time to investigate till later.
Marek
HI All,
the image of NGC5363 that I sent to Peter for his comments above was taken on 3 July 2010 with my 14" LX200R as part of my normal supernova search program.
Without the benefit of a photo with an arrow pointing to the object of interest, and as far as I can tell from the description above, the object in question is simply a normal foreground star which tends to be lost in the glow of the background galaxy if the image is exposed for too long.
I imaged NGC5363 four times between early June and early August 2010, and the star is present in each of the 4 images.
To help clarify this, see the image below which shows the object that I think Marek is concerned about. Is this the correct object?
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the well researched and knowledgeable follow up on NGC5363, seems to solve the mystery. Not a supernova hunter but would like to see a bright one, missed 1987a, wasn't back into astronomy then and was oblivious at the time.
Also guys, for what it's worth, I just found another image of NGC5363 in my archive of supernova search images that was taken in August 2001 and clearly shows the star in question.
Its all good.
I could have written my reply a bit better, that's what late nights do to you.
The end result is that there is always someone here on IIS that is willing and has the knowledge to help out.
PeterM
U.K. professional photographer, Gain Lee, who we met at the Texas Star Party in 2007,
has kindly forwarded me a link to an image he has taken of 2011dn in M51 on
June 7th 2011 using one of the Faulkes Telescopes -
