A “happy snap” (with iPhone) of the sky over my backyard rooftop, with Luna peeping through cloud. The nova’s location is behind me from this vantage point.
After being away for a week and a cloudy sky on Sunday, I caught my first glimpse of Nova Carinae 2018 (ASASSN-18fv) in 7×50 binoculars minutes before the sky started clouding out.
I estimated it to be 5.8 (purple, at top right) at just after 11pm Adelaide time.
Note also the upward trend-line.
I had hoped to subsequently image the nova to carry out DSLR photometry for better accuracy but that didn’t pan out due to cloud.
At the time of submission to AAVSO the last observation before mine was 6.5, several hours earlier. Since then, others have submitted observations up to 5.9. So, I appear to have caught Nova Car 2018 on the rise and at its peak so far.
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