Posted by Mike Harlow at 22:47 on 2013 Aug 22
I had my first opportunity to image the nova on Tuesday night and got some reasonable shots despite the full Moon. But my main reason for observing was to try to get a spectrum of the nova using the objective prism I have on loan from the BAA instrument collection. I haven’t had a chance to calibrate the spectrum yet but it does show some nice emission lines as well as some very faint absorption lines. It will be interesting to see how the spectrum evolves as the nova fades.Image details:4.5 inch F/5 Newtonian with 12 degree flint objective prism mounted over the front end. Unmodified Canon 550 DSLR hence the sharp cut-off beyond the H alpha emission line. ISO800 and 20 second exposure with slow drive rate to spread out the spectrum.See: http://www.oasi.org.uk/Obsvns/20130127_spectra/20130127_spectra.shtml for more details. 