Supernova discovery - confirmation from Ireland

Thanks folks. The confirmation images were taken with the DSI on the 8" Celestron SCT at F6.3. They were 90 second exposures.

I'm pretty certain that there are at least a few of you out there who have the necessary equipment to get down to this kind of detail and magnitide. So in that respect, I'm sure a few of you would have been able to do the same.

All in all, I'm delighted that I've been able to contribute some 'real' science at last - albeit only a confirmation image. As far as SN searches go, I'll have to mull that one over. It would be cool to discover one though!

Cheers

Dave McD

Congratulations Dave on confirming a new supernova..thats a surperb achivement. A moment never to be forgotten...i wish you more of these good times in the near future

Great stuff

Well done Dave!

Well done Dave! I am particularly impressed because of the size of telescope and the basic DSI camera. Your new mounting is really paying off with results to that limiting mag threshold. Looking forward to not only more confirmations, but may be new discoveries

Eamonn A

Thanks folks :oops:

I think this will be an unforgetable moment but I hope there will be more.

The thing that still surprises me is, as Eamonn says, the ability of this setup to get down to mag 17.9 (and a few tenths more I suspect). I got a mail off a guy some time back who got down to mag 19.6 - with a 14" scope and an SBIG CCD. So I thought I'd be lucky to hit mag 16 with such a small scope and an entry level CCD. But there you go.

I hope folks reading this board can see that it doesn't take a huge amount of expensive equipment to do science. I know I have a super mount but I do know that standard mounts would also be capable of this type of work. So, hopefully, this will spur you guys and gals onto similar projects. It would be great for this community and for the Irish amateur community.

And yes, I'll be at Whirlpool on Saturday to sign autographs, provided you can get past the minders...

Cheers

Dave McD

Ah well done Dave!! I'll bet your feelin' great today! and with a C8 as well, mine too, but i don't have that mount or DSI.

Now mag 17.9 isn't bad at all!, As the guys said already, try and search yourself, even the brighter messier galaxies would be a great start!

Nice to hear 'one of our own' doing this, Well done
Keith..