The 25th Anniversary of SN1987A: 24th February 2012.
Big day tomorrow!!!
IT'S THE 25th Anniversary date of SN1987A: 24th February 1987.
It's here, it's here, it's FINALLY here!!!!!!!!!
Get out the party poppers, light those sparklers, grab the champagne, let's all do cartwheels, woooooohooooooooooooooooooooo
Can you tell I'm excited???
Many of us will remember that magical, memorable time when we looked up into the sky and there it was- a naked eye brightly visible supernova in the LMC galaxy. And it was all to ourselves way down here in the southern hemisphere, making northerners green with envy.
This was also the brightest supernova seen from Earth naked eye, since the supernova of 1604AD.
And! It also taught us for the first time, that a star doesn't need to be an aged orange giant- this was the first ever known case of an LBV going supernova. This SN explosion also taught us that for the first time, a star doesn't need to be an aged orange giant- this was the first ever know case of an LBV going supernova.
Now Tom (username von Tom), I know you fully expect me to yet again use your fabulous pic (it's my most special astro pic ever that Tom let me have), so here it is. Isn't it just fabulous and the best keepsake ever?! Even David Darling wanted it from me for his website .
And you'll should really watch this fantastic doco done in 1987 on this SN. It interviews all the people involved in the discovery and observations of this event. It is a fantastic doco, please I urge you, do watch it, you won't be disappointed. It's a NOVA-PBS doco and they do some mighty fine quality docos.
Okay, so you know whfat, just incasse you didn'tt phknow, don't questions any pfosts i do ere in the next 24hrs eeeeespecially ones that are fussopsed to be helping beginners okay aaaaaghh *hick*.
bye have go now.
Okay, so you know whfat, just incasse you didn'tt phknow, don't questions any pfosts i do ere in the next 24hrs eeeeespecially ones that are fussopsed to be helping beginners okay aaaaaghh *hick*.
bye have go now.
I remember 1987A very well. It was sooooo bright and it was easily visible for months.
It is one of those special events that has planted itself in my memory. I can still easily visualise what I saw
Hehehehe I do the same.....I wish I had a lock out system ( you know like they have for cars?) for the times when I have a few and decide to post silly posts or facebook dunk!
What did I do last night again? oh thats right , I took a bunch of pictures of a hole in the ground and asked what it was and then proceeded to take a bunch more pics of cheese and chalk to enter the photo comp
Ah whatever.....
Getting back to topic...thanks for the link Suzy! In 87 I ( we my family) were going through some interesting times and never knew about the SN happening......sadly...
Any hoo....I'll have a gander tomorrow ( clouds permitting - yes we have them here in WA at times too )
Cheers
Bartman
I remember at the time, a friend at the AAT telling me that at a staff meeting in
Epping, they had a brief moment of silence for "any life forms that may have
been in the death zone" before getting on with drawing up plans for the change
of schedule to observe it.
Nettie, aye, a great reason to celebrate. Sheeez, I just realised I'll be around 70 when the 50th anniversary comes around.
Jen, Yalumba cask wine, 13 bucks for two litres.
Also, a very handy bino viewing head cushion. Tis amazing how far $13 can take one if one is creative.
H, yeah everyone, what he said. Always remember, no one is safe. Ever.
Bart, I had absolutely no lock out system in place last night as I was home alone .... I didn't think making me look better could have been possible, until you mentioned your story. Now I don't feel so bad. Thanks for admitting that, you're very brave. When's your 2,000th post btw teehee.
Ken, thanks for your contribution. I too remember it like it was yesterday. I have to thank my father for that- I was only 22 at the time, he made me aware of the significance and we would watch it together. I didn't even have to go outside to see it as the bathroom window had it clearly in view.
I've often wondered how long it was actually visible for naked eye. I thought it was only something like 3 wks, but can't really remember as it was so long ago and was quite young. Was that "months" naked eye visible?
Steve, that is is awesome that you were actually imaging the LMC - how timely! Pleeeeeease would you let me have your photo? I did all my "drinking" celebrating last night thinking there might be a chance of me to do a tour with my scope of the LMC tonight, and being Qld, it's pouring with rain and I'm disappointed I can't even do that. I don't care about the quality- meaning if it didn't fully work out or whatever, what matters to me is a keepsake of a photograph on it's anniversary.. if that makes sense?
Gary, your post REALLY made me think.
I'd never ever thought about it from that angle.
That's very profound! Thank you so much for opening my eyes and making me think. That will stay with me forever actually.
Well... I sure hope some of you'll get to cruise the LMC tonight and celebrate this wonderful anniversary.
What does one do to compensate this special day that's ruined by rain I ask you... Any ideas, I'm at a loss at least the cricket match between Aussie & S.L is providing entertainment - creaming you guys as usual, so far 2/144 The match is won already.
I can remember it well Suzy, had photographed the LMC before and during that exciting time with gas hypered Konica film. Back then us few country amateurs did this great hobby alone, the internet has changed all that for the better.
You can have your extra wine; I just had an extra bowl of fruit and ice-cream.
cheers for the reminder, as if I could ever really forget! I have had a few other things on my mind lately so this did sneek up on me.
It was 40 years ago tonight that I took the train up to Auckland from old Palmy Town to see Led Zeppelin. I was just a mere 14.5 orbits old and had just learnt a few constellations via school at the time. My first venture into astronomy.
My dad paid for the return train ticket $9.00 (1,000km round trip). My 16 year old brother living and working in Auckland at the time paid for the concert ticket of $4.10 (the cheap seats were $3.50 & $3.10). I took $3.00 pocket money with me and came home with 20c change!Life wasn't cheap, but the living sure was!!
25 years ago tonight my great friend Noel Munford and I were photographing in the LMC once again, but having photographed the Tarantula three times earlier we skipped that area to photograph N 55! Them's the breaks! My old mate Albert Jones who shares the same birthday as me BTW, was more onto it and spotted the 'intruder.'
Some of my other mates in Dunedin, who shall stay nameless due to their eternal shame, photographed SN 1987A on the 23rd, but film being what it was then, they hadn't finished the film off that night and still had it in the camera when the announcements came through. Oh Shucks, nevermind!
Anyway here is one of my favourites from April 6th that year that Noel and I took. This was about half way from the outburst to the peak brightness on May 22nd, 1987.
Photo details: 1987.04.06, 30 minutes on Gas Hypersensitized Fuji D100 Slide Film, 30 cm F/7 Newtonian, Manawatu Observatory, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Along with Comet Halley, Horsehead and Pluto, I hold SN1987a as the most memorable astronomical event I have observed and photographed. I recall taking some widefield astrophotos of the SCP the previous week (photo 1) and when the SN appeared the following week I discovered my Olympus OM10 had developed a shutter problem. I recall racing to the local camera shop in Bendigo where they took a fortnight to repair it.
I have three surviving photos of SN1987 (photos 2, 3 & 4): Its brightness peaked in May with an apparent magnitude of about +3 and slowly declined in the months after.
I pointed the scope at SN1987a almost every night to say 'hello' to it.
My estimates on that April 2nd night have SN1987a at magnitude +3.7. The LMC is clearly seen in a 2-7 o'clock position. SN1987a is the brightest star in the centre of field with NGC 2070 (Tarantula Nebula) is the small red object just above.
The three film exposures were taken from Chewton, Australia using an Olympus OM-10, Olympus 18-55mm lens, ISO n/k, 30sec, 02/04/1987. No other image or film details are known.
I have also attached front pages from three magazines at the time:
1. Southern Astronomy's first issue - April/May 1987. This country's first real attempt at a local magazine with an article on the possible demise of the VNG time signal (who remembers using it for occultations etc?)
2. Time Magazine - March 23 1987
3. Sky and Telescope - May 1987
If anyone wants me to scan the articles I am more than happy to post them as long as there are no copyright issues.
Steve[/B], that is is awesome that you were actually imaging the LMC - how timely! Pleeeeeease would you let me have your photo? I did all my "drinking" celebrating last night thinking there might be a chance of me to do a tour with my scope of the LMC tonight, and being Qld, it's pouring with rain and I'm disappointed I can't even do that. I don't care about the quality- meaning if it didn't fully work out or whatever, what matters to me is a keepsake of a photograph on it's anniversary.. if that makes sense?
Here ya go Suzy, warts and all.
Full size image from last night (approx 3am, 24th Feb), gum tree at right,
shadow of the scope at bottom I am piggybacked on, dome shutter shadows top right and bottom left.
Gradients all over the place!
Lester, it sure must have been a lonely hobby back then, and so expensive and so much time waiting for prints to develop, boy we've come a long way for sure. Don't worry, I already had my extra glass of wine- it is fruit after all- fruit is good for you. Actually it's the only "fruit" I consume aside from bananas.
Ian and Stephen,
I'm a total loss for words and honestly if you could have seen the look on my face when I saw these pictures.. my jaw is still stuck to the ground. I'm in absolute in AWE of these pics & magazines posted here- you guys really have made my day. And I was feeling so down that I couldn't observe the LMC tonight and it's just really made up for it.
Ian, your pic is like nothing I've ever seen from an amateur telescope, I'm frozen as I type. It's not to say that there aren't pics out there, I don't know, but yours is the first close up WOW factor one that I've ever seen from an amateur telescope. It's very special. Do you mind if I keep a copy of your pic and can I share it on facebook?
I've just made it my desktop background.
You told that story so well of your concert - 1,000kms on a train, how keen was that! Aye, I can't believe how cheap stuff was. Nowadays an average concert is like $150 min. Thanks for the great story, really enjoyed it.
Stephen, please, I would love those articles!
Would you mind emailing them, that way I guess you're not putting them on the internet re copyright issues. When you send a msg to me it gives the option for pm or email.
Thank you so much!!!!
Wow! Bestest anniversary ever! Woooooooohooooooooooo!
Seriously, why is there no cartwheel emoticon
I'm really appreciating everyone here on this thread getting into the anniversary spirit and sharing your stories and pictures, it really does help commemorate the occasion. Thank you.
So WHO actually out there has got a pic of Sanduleak???
I want it.
This one here is the last picture E.S.O. took of the LMC a few hours before the SN explosion. The date shows as 23rd, but that would be the date difference of our countries.
And here is another pic of Sanduleak, more clearly shown and marked, also taken by E.S.O.
Hi Suzy, I'll send you a PM later today and I'll get them to you. I have been meaning to scan all my astronomy magazine from when I first became interested in the early 1980's. This will give me an reason to start!
I have no problems with what you wish to do with that pic. Just as long as you also credit Noel Munford with it as well.
I thought that you might like to see some of our other efforts as well. They are all scans off photos, so some of them are a bit rough after 25 years. Most of the damage was done in the early years before I knew how to look after them better. I must scan the negs and come up with a better digital set than this. Just another project to tackle soon I guess.
You wanted a pic of Sanduleak before the explosion. It just so happens that on the very first night that we had ouer Society's 12 inch up and running for photography, in time for Halley BTW, we photographed the Tarantula. The film we used was rubbish for astrophotogrphy but we were really only checking the tracking at that stage. Fortunately of the three images we took of the Tarantula prior to Feb 24th 1987, this one had the pre-cursor star in it (arrowed in the picture) taken on Dec 11th, 1985.
The next photo taken 25 years ago tonight shows how blue the S.N. was at first. The colour changed to a beautiful yellow in April & May when it peaked, before going orange and then red as it faded. These changes made it fascinating to follow down to our last photo on March 9th, 1989.
I have also included two versions of one of our widefield shots showing how the S.N. looked to the naked-eye. The second one arrows the S.N. and circles the star (Gamma Hydri) that was equal in brightness to the S.N. at its brightest.
Great memories!
Thanks Stephen, appreciate it.
Really? All of them... wow that sounds like a lot of work. I'm about to bite the bullet and start ripping out the observing pages as they'd serve me better in a folder where they'd be of more use rather than buried and forgotten. AS&T mags as well. That's going to hurt.. rip rip rip.
If you didn't already know, you can buy the complete collection of Astronomy Magazine from 1973 to 2010 on dvd for $149.95.
, so here it is. Isn't it just fabulous and the best keepsake ever?! Even David Darling wanted it from me for his website 
*Hic* 
When's your 2,000th post btw 
teehee.
Any ideas, I'm at a loss 
