Showing category "Unusual targets" (Show all posts)

New supernova SN2008in explodes in M61

Posted by Mark Ashley on Saturday, January 3, 2009, In : Unusual targets

Supernova 2008in was discovered on 26th December by Koichi Itagaki in the spiral galaxy M61 in Virgo. It is a type IIP supernova. Type II supernovae are formed from the core-collapse and explosion of massive stars (i.e. greater than 9 solar masses). Type IIP are designated as such because they reach maximum brightness, dim slightly, and then stay at almost the same brightness "plateau" for many days before fading (hence the name type IIP, i.e. II-Plateau). Other type II supernovae reach maxim...
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136199 Eris - definitely located this time!

Posted by Mark Ashley on Tuesday, December 30, 2008, In : Unusual targets

In late November and early December I imaged the dwarf planet Eris on several nights. Using Cartes du Ciel to help me pinpoint where she should be and the apparent movement of a faint object over the different nights I was fairly confident I had located the magnitude 18.7 dwarf planet. Here's my earlier post.

On the 28th December I tried again. With clearer skies I was able to image for longer to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. I'd also downloaded the Hubble Guide Star Catalogue to allow Ca...

Most luminous known object? Quasar APM 08279+0255

Posted by Mark Ashley on Sunday, December 28, 2008, In : Unusual targets

At magnitude 16.6, this quasar in Lynx is probably the most distant object which average amateur setups can image. Despite being so faint, the object is actually very luminous, but also very distant. It has a red-shift of 3.87 which puts it at around 12.9 billion light years away from us.

Although not visible on this monochrome image, the red-shift leads to a very deep red hue to the quasar. For a while this led people to believe it was a carbon star in our own galaxy. When its red-shift was ...
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Supernova SN2008hv in Hydra galaxy

Posted by Mark Ashley on Saturday, December 27, 2008, In : Unusual targets

Here is an image of the Type Ia supernova SN2008hv in NGC 2765, a magnitude 12.2 lenticular galaxy in Hydra. It was discovered on 2nd December 2008 by the CHASE project. Type Ia supernovae are a result of the catacylismic explosion of a white dwarf star.

At around magnitude 15, SN2008hv was an easy target and stands out clearly on this 2 hour, 40 minute image (taken from 5 minute subs) through my f/3.3 LX90 on an SXV-M7C camera.

Have I located Eris?

Posted by Mark Ashley on Sunday, December 14, 2008, In : Unusual targets

Having taken three sets of images of Eris during November and early December, I think I've located her. At magnitude 18.7 this would be fair achievement with my 8" LX90. There's no way one image would be conclusive as the dwarf planet is only just above the background noise. But three images, corroborated by where Cartes du Ciel says she should be, means I'm reasonably confident. See the Minor Planets page for more on this.