Strange Quarks

Nova Car 2018 or ASASSN-18fv was discovered by the ASAS Supernova network on March 21st and has so far reached around magnitude 6.5 from a progenitor magnitude of 19.9 within a couple of days.

Below is a Stellarium view of the location of ASASSN-18fv, very close to the 5.1 magnitude comparison star near the Eta Carina nebula and star, a variable whose brightness I often estimate.

A binocular finder chart with a slightly different orientation from the Stellarium screenshot is shown below:

https://www.aavso.org/apps/vsp/chart/X22786BFJ.png

This is a crowded area of the sky, and being so close to the 5.1 star, it may be tricky in a low power binocular field.

Rob Kaufman posted this image of the nova, with yet another different orientation:

I have not yet had the opportunity to observe the nova; hopefully in a couple of days.

The AAVSO alert notice has more details.

This entry was posted on March 23, 2018 at 9:18 am and is filed under Astronomy, Science, Variable Stars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.