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This is a fascinating thread – thanks for starting it, Robin!
Just thought I’d drop a reminder that if anyone would like to put their thoughts on record, letters to the JBAA are always welcome (and can be sent to me at pjennings@britastro.org).
Roll on 2038!
Philip
I have it at around 7.5V in 10×50 binoculars tonight (00:10 UT) – strikingly dimmer than comp. star 71 in the AAVSO chart (mag. 7.1), and only visible with averted vision although transparency isn’t perfect here. I had got my Star Analyser and C8 at the ready to capture a lo-res spectrum, but the clouds have promptly rushed in each time I have made an attempt.
I am intrigued by how quickly the spectrum seems to have changed from P Cygni profiles to hydrogen emission. I‘m guessing we were looking through the initial expanding envelope of ejected material yesterday and now we’re seeing ’deeper’ into the nova, to emission from runaway fusion etc? The pace at which these things can evolve amazes me.
At 23:45 UT I’m getting 6.4 (+/-0.2)V in my 10×50 binos, with reference to the 10deg chart. Transparency not great here so I only had a brief window to make an estimate – I seem to be in the one part of the country with cloud! But a really easy binocular target. Great to see the spectra on here.
Amazing, Robin, and that value does seem remarkably close to what’s accepted. As you say it would be interesting to quantify the uncertainty in this method based on some other measurements.
Funnily enough ‘My Lovely Horse’ from Father Ted became stuck in my head just yesterday for some reason…
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the heads up for this! Alas I was too far north (which saved me some frustration as I would have been clouded out anyway). Did anyone get any positive observations? I’d love to see some results for this.
Philip
Wonderful to see your results, Bill! I’m surprised by just how prominent that magnesium emission line is.
Alas, the Quadrantids were thoroughly clouded out, rained out and snowed out at my location.
Philip
Glad to hear the situation is mostly under control. Disturbingly similar scenes to those at Lick just a few days earlier. From what I have gathered Lick is OK, but the images from a few days ago were pretty worrying (e.g. see this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/astrojennb/status/1296305599529902080).
Thanks! Some cracking results on this thread. I forgot to mention in my first post by the way that drawings of the transit are very welcome as well as photos (obviously to send to Paul Abel/Chris Hooker as well as me!).
I had very little success here in Malton, but the clouds did clear for about 5 minutes at 13:40 UT and I was able to see and very clumsily photograph the transit by projection using a folded refractor. Unfortunately the dog picked up on my excitement at this moment, and by the time I had persuaded him to lick neither my face nor the objective lens the clouds had once again set in. Of course, it became beautifully clear just after sunset!
I didn’t have time to get a detailed drawing, but I did briefly notice some faculae – did anyone else see this in white light?
Philip
