This is every amateur astronomer's dream - to discover something new, in this case, a nebula. The news broke yesterday on a Yahoo group I'm in.
Here's all the info from a few sources. Get that CCD camera out!
Gordon
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'Amastro' member Jay "The Kid" McNeil noticed recently that some images
of the region of M78 contained a new nebula. An IAU Circular has been
published with some of the details, which is copied below. Jay will
be able to fill us in on personal details soon. I'm pretty sure his CCD
images were LRGB (or similar), not 'unfiltered' as given in the IAUC.
Two items are of interest to 'amastro' folks. One is that the new
nebula is almost certainly a straightforward visual object, which is only
a magnitude or so fainter than NGC 2064 in the same field. I'm guessing
40cm = 16-inches aperture may be enough to pick it up from a dark site.
Secondly, it is of interest to know when the nebula appeared. The
region has surely been imaged often over the two observing seasons (assuming
the outburst happened as recently as that). If you have images of this
area---with dates known!---then please have a look at them to see if the
nebula is present or not. A before/after comparison pair is available here:
www.balinka.com/m78c.jpg
...which matches an excellent (but undated) color-composite (left) with
Jay's labelled image (right) showing the new event.
If you are a variable-star observer with CCD set-up, then standardized
photometry of the erupting star (located at the south tip of the nebula)
is valuable. The star is presently something like mag 16-17 at R.
Brian Skiff
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Circular No. 8284
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL
cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html
ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)
IRAS 05436-0007
A report was received from J. W. McNeil, Paducah, KY, of the
appearance of a new nebula in a dense region of the Lynds 1630
cloud in Orion, and apparently associated with IRAS 05436-0007, on
his unfiltered CCD images taken with a 7.6-cm refractor on Jan. 23
UT. The object, which is located at R.A. = 5h46m14s, Decl. =
-0o05'.8 (equinox 2000.0), was then of total mag about 15-16 (with
his CCD camera's sensitivity peaking at 575 nm), but it is not
present on seven Digitized Sky Survey images from 1951 to 1991. B.
Reipurth, University of Hawaii (UH), confirms that a faint optical
counterpart to IRAS 05436-0007 has gone into outburst and has
produced a large reflection nebulosity, based on preliminary
examination of red broadband CCD images obtained with K. Meech at
the UH 2.2-m telescope on Jan. 31. Reipurth adds that this is a
very rare event, apparently similar to that involving IRAS
05380-0728 (cf. Reipurth and Bally 1986, Nature 320, 336). The
outburst may be an EX-Lup-type or FU-Ori-type eruption, driven by a
sudden increase of accretion through a circumstellar disk, and thus
in urgent need of observation (see Herbig 1977, Ap.J. 217, 693;
Lehmann et al. 1995, A.Ap. 300, L9; Hartmann and Kenyon 1996, ARAA
34, 207). Reipurth also notes that HH 22 is in the line-of-sight
of this new nebula but is not physically involved with the nebula
(Eisloeffel and Mundt 1997, A.J. 114, 280).
(C) Copyright 2004 CBAT
2004 February 9 (8284) Daniel W. E. Green
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Star Formation newsletter dated Feb 9th, written by the foremost expert on these objects, Bo Reipurth.
Julian M McNeil, an amateur astronomer from Paducah,Kentucky reports the appearance of a new cometary reflection nebula, 1.1 arc minutes in diameter in the Lynds 1630 cloud in Orion. The nebula was found on several images taken on 2004 Jan 23 UTY with a 7.6 cm Takahashi refractor and CCD, and is not present on seven sky survey images from POSS 1, POSS II and UKSTU taken between 1951 and 1991. Coordinates for the new optical nebula are RA 5 46 14 Dec -00 05 8 (J2000). McNeil's Nebula is apparently associated with IRAS 05436-0007, which consequently may have erupted. The new nebula surrounds the Herbig Haro Object HH22, which however seems unrelated to the IRAS source. McNeil's Nebula appears very reddened towards the IRAS source, as commonly seen in cometary nebulae. Subsequent CCD images and infrared photometry/spectroscopy obtained at Mauna Kea confirm the emergence of this new nebula, and shows the brightening of a faint optical counterpart to the IRAS source, which displays an emission line spectrum akin to those seen in EX or eruptions. Observers are urged to monitor the development of this rare event before Orion disappears in the evening twilight.
  