24-hour monitoring of T CrB

A perhaps slightly crazy idea has occurred.

When T CrB goes off, the rise to maximum is likely to take only a few hours. For the time being it is inconveniently close to the sun and so is only at a high altitude and low airmass during daylight.

I know that bright stars are easy to image in daylight. With my scope substantially sub-second exposures through a Sloane r’ or i’ filter show stars down to at least 9th magnitude, though at rather low contrast. (Near-IR imaging isn’t strictly necessary but the daytime sky is readily seen to be blue, not red, and so is much darker through those filters, or Cousins-R and Tri-colour R for that matter). Proof is provided at https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/421791-messier-objects-by-daylight/#comment-4483343

Given that T CrB is around 10th magnitude at present it should be relatively easy to image in the day time. The main problem will be putting it in the field of view unless your mount has good absolute positioning. After that, take images at a range of exposures until the star is just about saturated or slightly less and the sky is not saturated. Bring the contrast right up by subtracting the mean or median sky brightness from the image and what is left is a clear star in a noisy background.

Of course, once T CrB does go into outburst that fact will be very obvious and it is time to send out an immediate alert so that the rise to maximum can be monitored.

Anyone willing to have a try? I can’t until January when I return to the observatory in La Palma.