Posted by Gary Poyner at 16:24 on 2013 Nov 29
Whilst everyone is going Comet crazy at the moment (and rightly so I guess), lets not forget this Nova in Delphinus. We are just past the first 100 days since it first appeared in our skies as a naked eye star, and it’s still visible around magnitude 11.0 in the evening sky. It’s usually around this brightness level that interest in Novae wanes amongst observers, so I’m appealing to all those observers with small telescopes, DSLR’s/CCD’s to continue monitoring the Nova for as long as possible in the evening sky – and importantly report your data to the VSS AND to Guy Hurst.The Nova is now in the nebular phase, and has been steady’ish around magnitude 11 since the middle of October. However some Novae develop a dusty environment which can manifest itself at this stage of the decline, so it’s quite possible that Nova Del (or V339 Del as it’s now known) just might take a dramatic fade. And remember…you don’t need to get up at Dawn to see it :-)Gary