I was humbled recently to be a recipient of the 2019 Merit Award from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), having previously received The Director’s Award in 2011 and the Bill Bradfield Award from ASSA in 2012.
Patrick Wills also received the AAVSO Merit Award this year for his work on the AAVSO Variable Star Index, a database that VStar also uses, including the web services Patrick has created.
Last night’s binocular observation of eta Carinae was my 500th visual observation submission to the AAVSO International Database (AID).
An extremely modest number really, compared with other observers over a similar timeframe.
But still, somehow a nice milestone.
I’ve also submitted more than 100 DSLR photometry observations to AID. Again, not many in comparative terms.
The light curve shows the last ten years of visual and B band data along with the 169 (in purple) visual and DSLR eta Carinae observations I’ve made during that time. The red trend line shows the steady rise in eta Carinae’s brightness that has been going on for decades now.
Between VStar, work, and life in general, I don’t get a lot of time to observe these days, but I try to make each observation count.
For anyone following Strange Quarks, you will have noticed my preoccupation with other things in recent months.
Indeed, my last variable star blog post was regarding a southern nova in March 2018.
This pre-occupation is taking its toll in various ways on me and those around me.
I was looking through a bunch of old photos and slides today and came across these star-trailed pictures (film-based) I took of the 2001 Leonid meteor shower from Malalla, South Australia:
Meteors radiate outward from a point in the sky in the constellation Leo (called the radiant) since the Earth is ploughing into left over sublimated material from comet Temple-Tuttle in that direction.
My father and I stayed up until the wee hours watching the meteors come thick and fast. I have good memories of that evening spent with dad. After he’d had enough, I stayed up to watch them until the sun came up.
Apart from the “getting up at 4:15am” part, the total lunar eclipse on Saturday morning (July 28) was very enjoyable.
Luna 1 minute after maximum totality (f2.0, ISO 200, 1 sec). For reference, the right-most star is rho Capricorni, a double with a brightest component of magnitude 4.8.
I took a little over 200 images from our backyard starting a few minutes before totality began at 5am ACST until just after the end of totality at around 6:45am.
I also looked at the Moon through 7×50 binoculars from time to time, from which the impression of the Moon as a 3D ball of rock hanging in the sky was evident.
I had initially planned to use my 8″ telescope for imaging as well, but in the end, was happy with to take wide field shots, so left the scope inside.
All images were taken with a tripod-mounted Canon 1100D and 100mm fixed lens controlled using Canon EOS Utilities.
A montage showing Luna 5 minutes before the start of totality (f2.0, ISO 400, 1/8 sec), 1 minute after maximum totality (f2.0, ISO 200, 1 sec), and 9 minutes before the end of totality (f2.0, ISO 200, 1 sec).
Along with most images I’ve seen, these present a vividness not evident only by eye. The following images are perhaps closer to what was seen without aid of imaging equipment.
Moon and Mars 20 minutes before the end of totality (f2.8, ISO 200, 1 second).
The Moon and Mars 8 minutes after the end of totality (f2.0, ISO 100, 1/10 sec), just above our SW fence line.
The final image shows an incidental image of the International Space Station passing “near” our lemon tree when I noticed it passing above the Moon.
ISS trail (f2.0, ISO 100, 1.3 sec)
At least one image of the eclipsed Moon also ended up with a “stray” satellite in the field.
Shortly after my last post I observed the nova again. Within 24 hours it has dropped by a full magnitude after peaking at 5.7, a little higher than my binocular estimate of 5.8 from last night.
My two observations are in purple, as usual, with the observation an hour ago under the cross-hairs.
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.
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:
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.
AAVSO alert notice 613 for the nova in Circinus requests visual, DSLR, CCD and spectroscopic observations, with multiple observations each night if possible, in support of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s observations that are currently underway:
Target-of-opportunity observations requested by Dr. Mukai are taking place now through February 6 UT with the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. To support these observations, observers are asked to make several observations per night.
I’m processing DSLR observations of the nova from last night and plan to continue observing over the next few nights. Its visual magnitude is currently at around 7.2.
Here’s a spectrum taken by Rob Kaufman on January 31:
Adelaide was largely clouded out for the eclipse but the cloud thinned at times well enough to get some reasonable images, especially after midnight. Taking more than 100 images also helped.
I used a Canon 1100D at the prime focus of my 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain Alt-Az (Meade LX-90) telescope.
Here are some images I thought were interesting enough to show. These are straight off the camera with no processing except RAW to JPEG conversion.
In my last post on January 20 about Nova Mus 2018, I said that another southern nova had been discovered, this one by John Seach in the early hours of January 19 in the constellation of Circinus, near alpha and beta Centauri. That post also showed a Stellarium context screenshot and pointed to an AAVSO finder chart.
This nova has slowly been on the rise for the last several days from around magnitude 8.5 to 6.3 by January 27.
The following 15 second DSLR images I took on Jan 22, 23, 26 and 27 show the nova brightening over time:
If the images seem out of focus, that’s because they are. They were used for photometry rather than with the intention of being pretty; use of defocus is part of the procedure. See this talk I gave about DSLR photometry in 2015 for more detail. There’s some positional differences between frames, reflecting the difference in observation time from night to night.
The light curve below shows visual, Johnson V, and Tri-Color Green (DSLR) observations from January 19 to 28; mine are in purple. I’ve also submitted observations in blue and red bands.
This light curve doesn’t appear to show a simple linear increase, so it will be interesting to see where the rise stops.
Rob Kaufman (discoverer of Nova Mus 2018) said that a low resolution spectrum he took on January 26 was essentially featureless.
The sky is largely clouded out tonight here in Adelaide at the end of a hot day (42° C), but I just caught a quick glimpse of the nova in 7×50 binoculars, but wasn’t able to check against comparison stars. It’s around the same magnitude as last night though. I’ll carry out more DSLR photometry as soon as I can.
In the meantime I have two more nights of Nova Mus 2018 (currently on the decline) DSLR images to process. I’ll write an update post for that nova too.
