Visual Nova Discovery In Ophiuchus!

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF VARIABLE STAR OBSERVERS
25 Birch Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
aavso@aavso.org
Tel. 617-354-0484 Fax 617-354-0665

AAVSO ALERT NOTICE 338 (April 10, 2006)

SUBJECT: 1709-29 V2576 OPHIUCHI - NOVA OPHIUCHI 2006 NUMBER 2

Event: Nova in Ophiuchus

Discovered By: Peter Williams, Heathcote, NSW, Australia

Discovery Magnitude: visual magnitude 10.5 (visual discovery)

Discovery Date: April 6.565 UT

Position: Precise position provided by Tom Krajci, Cloudcroft, NM:
R.A. (2000): 17h 15m 33.30s
Decl. (2000): -29o 09' 39.9"

AAVSO Chart(s): V2576 Oph has been plotted on the 'd' scale AAVSO chart for V517 Oph (on the chart it may be labeled 'Var Oph 06'; if so, the label will be updated to V2576 Oph shortly), and is available at:

www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/searchcharts3.pl?name=v2576%20oph

Note that the AAVSO charts for V517 Oph were derived from the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) charts a number of years ago with their permission.

Report Object to the AAVSO as: 1709-29 V2576 OPH

How to Observe: visually or photometrically (V, Rc, or Ic filter)

Observations Reported to the AAVSO:
Mar. 30-31 <12 ~photovisual (ptg w/orange filter), W. Liller, Vina del Mar, Chile (reported via AVSON (see Note b) and CV-net);
Apr. 06.311 UT, 10.7: ~photovisual (uncertain to several tenths, ptg w/orange filter), Liller (via AVSON);
06.565, 10.5, P. Williams, Heathcote, NSW, Australia;
06.590, 10.4, P. Williams;
06.611, 10.4, P. Williams;
07.042, 10.2, (visual confirmation), M. Reszelski, Szamotuly, Poland;
07.1540, 10.2, P. Schmeer, Bischmisheim, Germany;
07.3845, 9.220 V +/- 0.01, M. Nicholson, Davenry, Northants, England;
07.4722, 9.4 ptg (Fuji 800 ISO film), D. West, Mulvane, KS;
09.0847, 9.4, A. Amorim, Florianapolis, Brazil;
09.3685, 9.385 V +/-0.02, Nicholson;
09.4549, 9.5, West;
10.3500, 9.481 V +/-0.02, Nicholson;
10.4299, 9.6, West;

Martin - is that the guy who does all his SN searches visually? He must have some memory. I can't even remeber where my car keys are...

Looks like its dimming a little...
Cheers

Dave

Martin - is that the guy who does all his SN searches visually?

hi Dave, that's the Rev. Ron Evans that does the visual SN discoveries . . . remarkable achievements he has made over the years. I think there's a guy Peter Collins who also has found quite a number of novae visually -- including one on the front cover of an issue of Astronomy magazine! They printed a pic of the Dumbbell Nebula and he knew the star field so well that he spotted a star different to previous pictures he had seen. That's some memory!

atb,

John

Cheers John

Amen

Dave

Peter williams sounds familiar...he may also be a comet discoverer? I recall is name from somewere but cant quite place it.

Peter is a prolific variable star observer - The story to this one is by pure chance, he was looking for the variable R CrB star V517 Oph, when looking at his aavso chart, he noticed a star that was not printed on the Chart!!

Now that's good luck! Wish it would happen to me :roll:

It just goes to show...if you don't look.......

Keith..