New nova - NOVA DELPHINI 2013

[VeeJay]

Hi,
There's a new nova in the sky:
http://www.universetoday.com/104103/bri ... ore-104103

Can someone guide me how to load this object in Stellarium?

Thanks!
-Sanjay

[starfinder]

Thanks for posting the news, Sanjay!

Apparently it has now brightened to about mag 5.2. See the S&T article, with more finder charts:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 31281.html

As for your question, I'm not that familiar with Stellarium. Here is the link to the users guide:
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.ph ... User_Guide

This post says it can't be done (as of last year):
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ ... in/5312783

I'll try to view the nova these few nights.

[starfinder]

I managed to view and image Nova Delphini 2013 this evening.

I viewed it through 8x32 and 15x50 binoculars from my home in south-central Singapore. Using the chart on the Sky & Telescope webpage, I carefully confirmed the sighting as that of the nova.

In the binoculars, it appeared whitish with perhaps a slight bluish tinge.

Comparing it with surrounding stars, and in particular nearby 29 Vulpeculae (mag 4.80) which appeared slightly dimmer than the nova, I would place the nova then at about mag 4.5.


I then imaged the nova with a Canon EOS 60D dSLR and a Sigma 17-70mm lens and a Canon 70-300mm lens. Below is an image of the nova with the surrounding constellation stars of Delphinus, Sagitta and Aquila, and below that is the same image with the constellation lines drawn.

(BTW: can this thread be shifted to the General Astronomy section, and the word "supernova" deleted, thanks.)

Image details:
16 August 2013 1706UTC (Sat 17 August 2013 01:06am local time)
Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-70mm lens at f/4, ISO 1600 2s. Uncropped.


Click here to load the full image on a separate webpage:
http://img10.picoodle.com/i58g/starfind ... _u8s7b.jpg



Click here to load the full image on a separate webpage:
http://img10.picoodle.com/i58g/starfind ... _u8s7b.jpg

[starfinder]

I've just viewed the nova again with 15x50 binos (Sat 17 Aug, 1605UTC; Sun 18 Aug 12:05am local time).

It appears to have dimmed a little compared with my sighting around 24 hrs ago. It now seems slightly dimmer than nearby 29 Vulpeculae (mag 4.80), whereas previously it was slightly brighter. So the nova is now around mag 5.0.

Have also imaged it, but there's a lot of high level thin clouds today.

Here's the current light curve for the nova:
http://www.aavso.org/lcg/plot?auid=000- ... an=&vmean=

[VeeJay]

Hi Gavin,
Thanks for the links! Once I saw the familiar S&T sky maps, I was able to find it with my binos.
And yes, I also learnt the difference between a nova and supernova just now, so I edited my first post

Thanks!

[Gary]

Nice video by David on how to find this Nova manually:

http://youtu.be/Polk91AwSOk

[Airconvent]

Nice one and as expected, Gavin (Mr Bino himself) managed to image it. I think you really got your money's worth of your LX90 many times over!
I wonder if we will be able to see a supernova (from a safe distance please..that means no threat now or ever!) in our lifetime ?

[starfinder]

Nice one and as expected, Gavin (Mr Bino himself) managed to image it. I think you really got your money's worth of your LX90 many times over!
I wonder if we will be able to see a supernova (from a safe distance please..that means no threat now or ever!) in our lifetime ?

Hi Rich, many thanks! Actually, the previous photos above were taken without the benefit of the LX-90. I found the nova in binos and imaged/identified it using the charts. As Kincade said in Skyfall, sometimes the old fashioned ways are the best.

However, today I managed to image the nova for the first time at high magnification using the money'-worth-many-times-over LX-90 from my east facing room window at 8pm plus when it was visible in the ENE. Below is the image of Nova Delphini 2013 taken today (Thurs 22 August 2013) at 8:40pm / 1240 UTC, with a Canon EOS 60D dSLR at 5 s ISO 1600 (8" SCT at f/10).

It appears to have a very slight reddish tinge, though there is a possibility that this is a result of the camera's internal image processing. In the eyepiece of the LX-90 today at 143x, the nova appeared off-white with a slight yellowish tinge.

I also took images at the exact same imaging settings of two nearby stars for comparison purposes. They are:
SAO 88664 (mag 5.69) in Vulpecula, and 29 Vulpeculae / SAO 88944 (mag 4.80).
The composite image below shows the 3 stars placed side-by-side. Based on a comparison with the other two stars (which are not listed as variable), and assuming the sky conditions at those spots were the same (probably were), I estimate the nova at about mag 5.5.

I've also viewed the nova again in 15x50 binos this evening. It has dimmed by a very noticeable amount and is definitely now much dimmer than 29 Vulpeculae (mag 4.80), whereas the nova was slightly brighter than 29 Vul when I first saw it on 16 Aug at 1700+UTC (within around 6 hrs of peak brightness). How interesting! Variable stars are indeed fascinating.

The light curve on the website of the AAVSO link shows that the nova has dimmed steadily since its peak at around mag 4.3 on 16 August 2013 at 12:00UTC:
http://www.aavso.org/lcg/plot?auid=000- ... an=&vmean=

[starfinder]

I viewed the nova again today (23 Aug 2013), this time through a 120mm ED refractor at 26x and 64x power, as well as with 15x50 binos.

The nova has continued to dim. I spent about a half hour from around 9.00pm to 9.30pm (1300 - 1330UTC) trying to ascertain its brightness by comparing it with nearby stars (around 1-3 degrees away) in the eyepiece of the refractor.

The nova was off-white with a slight creamy-yellow tinge.

The following are my findings:
- It was considerably dimmer than SAO 88664 (mag 5.69)
- It was brighter than SAO 88693 (mag 6.43)
- It was slightly brighter than SAO 88783 (mag 6.21)
I reckon that it was then at around mag 6.0 or mag 6.1

This roughly corresponds with the current reported brightness by other observers as reported on the AAVSO website:
http://www.aavso.org/lcg/plot?auid=000- ... an=&vmean=


Reports on the spectroscopic and other analysis of the nova may be found here:
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/

Some interesting findings on this classical nova:

- A pre-discovery image of the star taken on Aug 13.998 UT shows that the progenitor star was then at 17.1 mag. When the nova was discovered by K. Itakagi on Aug. 14.584 UT, it was already at mag 6.8 mag, a rise of 10.3 mag in 14 hours . The nova reached a maximum brightness of 4.3 around Aug 16.25 UT.
(http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5304)

- Between mag 17.1 and mag 4.3 is a magnitude difference of 12.8, which means the nova became brighter by 1.31826e+5 times (which I think means 131,826 times) between pre-nova to its brightness peak, using the calculator at:
http://www.1728.org/magntudj.htm

- Gamma rays have been detected from the nova. I wonder what it means?
(http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5302)

- It seems that the nova has been estimated to be at a distance of 5.5 kpc (i.e. 17,950 light years, since 1 parsec = 3.26 light years): http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5297
If this is correct, then at its brightest at mag +4.3, the nova had an absolute magnitude of -9.4032 (using the calculator at http://www.1728.org/magntudj.htm). Since our Sun has an absolute magnitude of +4.83, it means that the nova at its brightest was brighter than our Sun by a factor of 14.233 magnitudes or 4.934919e+5 times (i.e. I think it means 493,491.9x). So this nova was visually around half a million times brighter than our Sun! (This assumes there no was brightness extinction by interstellar dust, etc.) If so, I think this nova is quite super.


Any comments as to the correctness or otherwise of the above conclusions?

[lqx]

Yep Gavin, I think math works out!

and yep, we all would love to see a supernova... as long as it isn't too near! To put those numbers in perspective... comparing with a standard typeIa supernova we would get...

Shamelessly lifted from Wiki: Type Ia supernova

"...The star explodes violently and releases a shock wave in which matter is typically ejected at speeds on the order of 5,000–20,000 km/s, or roughly up to 6% of the speed of light. The energy released in the explosion also causes an extreme increase in luminosity. The typical visual absolute magnitude of Type Ia supernovae is Mv = −19.3 (about 5 billion times brighter than the Sun), with little variation."

5'000'000'000 x Sun!
vs
500'000xSun

quite some difference!

- Gamma rays have been detected from the nova. I wonder what it means?
(http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5302)

Alfred took a spectrum of it from SG! Awesome!
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12272