Preparing for the eruption of T CrB

[Stewart John Bean]

I have tried to answer my own question without particular success. Certainly gamma ray bursts (GRB) are detected about once per day by satellites. Close supernovae may have caused extinction events and ground based radio astronomy may have a chance. I think it is possible that at a dark site and with a whole sky detector sensitive to green light (from excited N2) you may detect something. I am not going out in a deck chair waiting for a few seconds flash!

The largest GRB so far was GRB 221009A ( on 2022 October 9) which was associated with a supernovae 2 billion light years away. . Search “A Significant Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Associated with Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 221009A” . https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ac9d2f/meta
The event was detected with a very low frequency radio SuperSID monitor.

Are the radio section aware?

Now a recurrent nova is not a supernovae and the radiation is not focussed in our direction, but it is a million times closer so who knows.

Stewart

[Bill Ward]

Hi,
I was testing out the camera I’ll be using in my next meteor camera system and thought it would be a good idea to check what’s going on with T CrB.
This is a single 5 second unguided exposure, binned 2×2, cropped, linear stretch and re-sized. Taken 2024 04 09 23 46 58 BST. I found a finder chart on line but I’m not 100% sure if T CrB is bright enough to be visible.
I’ve circled what I think might be T CrB. The brightest star is Epsilon CrB for orientation. Does anyone have an image with T CrB in it to compare?
cheers,
Bill.

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   CrB-test-T-marked.jpg
   

[Bill Ward]

How does one edit messages?
Bill.

[AlanM]

Bill,

Uploading your image to Astronomy.Net confirms your marking.

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   10361813.jpeg
   

[Robin Leadbeater]

Here it is in a 1 sec exposure with my finder last night. (Fuzzy with this unfiltered fast achromat due to the high flux in the IR)

Cheers
Robin

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   TCrB_20240410_010953.png
   

[Bill Ward]

Hi Alan/Robin,
Thanks for the check/comparison shot.
Quite fascinating!
Cheers,
Bill.

[Maxim Usatov]

Interesting activity tonight.

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   root-metropsf-lightcurve.png
   

[Jeremy Shears]

Nice work Max!

[Paul G. Abel]

Pleased to report that T CrB is now accessible from my observatory! I shall be keeping a close watch of this star.

[Steve Brown]

I took a DSLR shot of T CrB on 13 April 2024, to enable me to compare it to a subsequent eruption image (hopefully). I’ve posted it here and in the Gallery.

Steve

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   T-CrB-scaled.jpg
   

[Maxim Usatov]

T CrB oscillations tonight.

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   root-metropsf-lightcurve.png
   

[Mr Ian David Sharp]

Maxim Usatov wrote:

T CrB oscillations tonight.

Hi Maxim,

Yes, I see considerable variability (and variability of variability night on night!). You can see the vertical spread over each night on this plot. I usually take 40 to 60 images per filter per night. It’s hard to display as the points get very bunched and I would have to expand just one or two nights to see the details.

Also, overall since April, T CrB has been quite steady especially in the past two or three weeks.

Cheers
Ian.

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   T-CrB-variability.png
   

[Maxim Usatov]

Interesting, Ian!

A 0.2 mag bump tonight with subsequent fade.

Max

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   root-metropsf-lightcurve-1.png
   

[Mr Ian David Sharp]

Hi Max,

Here are my results from last night. I’ll try and get longer runs tonight.

Cheers
Ian.

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   TCrb_Max.jpg
   

[Maxim Usatov]

Great multi-band series, Ian!

Max

[Mr Ian David Sharp]

Maxim Usatov wrote:

Great multi-band series, Ian!

Thanks Max!

It’s still very quiet…

Ian.

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   TCrb_Max-1.jpg
   

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