Supernova in M51

Got this alert via my mobile early this morning at 12.49am, pity I was on the beer!!! Jees, these things have to happen when you're actually doing something

How about any of you trying to image this, here's a link I got earlier actually showing just how damn quick this supernova lit up!

var.astro.cz/sn2005cs/sn2005cs.html

We're 300 years overdue on average in our own milkyway :roll:

Keith..

thats rapid brightening :shock: They don't normally brighten that fast do they?
Bill H.

BTW, if a supernova occured in our galaxy, but on the other side from us, would we see it? :oops:
Bill H.

Observed M51 no problem with the 8" SCt at 48X however due to patchy murky skies and poor trans i could not observe the SN or other faint stars within or near the spiral arms. I will try again on a better a night.

Here's an observing report from David Knisely, an experienced US observer. As you can read, it's not easy at the moment.

"Well, the sky cleared and I got the NexStar 9.25 out to try for M51 and ts supernova (July 1st, 2005 at 0600 UT). After some dark adaptation, I managed to see the galaxies fairly easily, and even from my driveway, the air was finally clear enough to see a little of the spiral structure. I put in the 24mm Panoptic (99x) and immediately said, "There it is!", meaning, the supernova. However, right after that, I started to go, "Are you SURE that is it?". There was a fairly noticable star between the innermost arm and the outermost one roughly opposite of the companion galaxy, but it looked to be a little too far off a line going through both galaxies' centers although like the supernova, it was on the side farthest away from the companion galaxy (NGC 5195). I noted in OBSERVING HANDBOOK AND CATALOG OF DEEP-SKY OBJECTS that there *is* a magnitude 13.5 star near that location, so I kicked up the power to 167x. After studying things for a while, I concluded that this was indeed that foreground star, but I started looking at the innermost spiral arm where it seems to have a small gap. Right next to it, I saw something star-like but very faint, so I fired up the computer and got an on-line image of the supernova. Yup, this time, that WAS it! Think of a line that goes through the centers of both galaxies and then follow it on to the side of the core farthest away from the companion galaxy. Just outside the innermost glow around the core of M51 just about at the "gap" in the first main spiral arm is the supernova (it is in the arm actually). It appeared noticably fainter than the 13.5 magnitude star in the galaxy I noted earlier, so the supernova I would estimate to be in the 13.8 to 14.0 range. Clear skies to you."

Gordon

BTW, if a supernova occured in our galaxy, but on the other side from us, would we see it? Embarassed
Bill H.

Probably not Bill, with there being so much dust, even if it was visible, it would be highly dimmed (interstellar dust extinction) and reddened.
Now if it occurs anywhere else, it should be visible, The last one was in the year 1604, Kepler's supernova at peak magnitude -2, the one before that was Tycho's supernova in the year 1572 at peak magnitude -4.

There was a suspect supernova in the year 1680 in cassiopeia, but this is unconfirmed and still open for debate. We are long overdue a visible supernova in the milkyway, I observe a lot of variable stars as my main interest, I'd love to see one, maybe a magnitude -5 one will appear tonight :idea:

Keith..

I'd love to see one, maybe a magnitude -5 one will appear tonight :idea:

Keith..

With all this cloud and drizzle i bet it does appear tonight
Bill H.