It certainly will be a spectacular sight, but I reckon it will ruin the deep sky viewing for a while.
We may have to move to the northern hemisphere.
Won't matter where you are, the light from the explosion will lighten the sky up considerably...your best bet for a dark(ish) sky would be northern Canada, northern Siberia or the Arctic.
Won't matter where you are, the light from the explosion will lighten the sky up considerably...your best bet for a dark(ish) sky would be northern Canada, northern Siberia or the Arctic.
Nah, the aurora is too active there to call those places dark sky
I've had people call me crazy for complaining about aurora. I just hated it getting in the way.
I was just reading that the Veil nebula "was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks" about 7,500 years ago. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
I was just reading that the Veil nebula "was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks" about 7,500 years ago. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
I was trying to figure out how this would be possible, and how the nova would not have masked the nebula from view, until I remembered that you would be seeing the reflected light shell, so if the supernova had already faded substantially by the time the reflection via the nebula arrived at the Earth, you would be able to see it.
I was just reading that the Veil nebula "was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks" about 7,500 years ago. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
That would have been a spectacular sight in ancient Egypt, I wonder if they ever recorded it.
Took a good long look at this last night (13122009) at about 2am when it had enough altitude. It is definitely brighter than last year and in my 'scope makes it a bit more challenging now to see the Homunculus Nebula well.
After comparing with about 1/2 dozen nearby stars between mag 4.06 and 4.96 I'd estimate between mag 4.35 to 4.45 -- using the 'scope and naked eye. Happily there are a several useful K-type stars within 1.5 degrees that can be used to minimise the Purkinje effect.
In some ways it'd be nice to be around to witness the death of this famous star, but sadly it would destroy the Homunculus Nebula -- one of my favourite objects and kill any hope of a properly dark-sky for maybe 3-4 months.
Watching the light-echoes through the Eta Carinae complex (NGC 3372) would be fascinating -- but would take a couple of hundred years to see ...
