Hind's Variable Nebula Bright

Sounds as though you will need a large telescope and darkskies to see it.

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BAA electronic circular No. 00169 www.britastro.org/
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Reports from the USA (Tom Polakis and S. Kent Blackwell) say that Hind's
variable nebula (NGC1555) has brightened considerably and is currently
visible in a 10-inch telescope. Although it has always been possible to
image this nebula in a reasonable sized instrument, it has for many years
been an extremely difficult visual target requiring telescopes in the 20 to
30-inch range along very good skies.

NGC1555 is located in Taurus at RA 4h 21.8m, Dec +19d 32m (2000.0). Because
it has two bright components with a darker neck in between, it was
originally thought to be two objects and given two NGC numbers NGC1555 and
1554. It was discovered by John Russell Hind in 1852, using a 7-inch
refractor from London. He also discovered the variable star, T Tauri
associated with the nebula, although variations in this star's brightness do
not seem to directly correlate with variations in the nebula's brightness.

Hind's variable nebula is a small 30 arcsec comet shaped area of faint
nebulosity lying just to the west of T Tauri. It is predominately a
reflection nebula and therefore nebula filters will be of little use.
Variations in brightness are usually associated with subtle changes in shape
or size of the nebula, or in the brightness distribution over the nebula.
If the US reports are correct, this is an ideal opportunity to observe a
normally difficult and greatly under observed object. Please send all
observations to the Director, along with full details of instrumentation and
observing conditions. Regular observations over the next few months, to
closely monitor any changes, would be particularly useful.

Stewart Moore, Director Deep Sky Section


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Circular transmitted on Mon Dec 13 00:20:25 GMT 2004
(c) 2004 British Astronomical Association www.britastro.org/
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Albert, I've been waiting weeks to observre T Tauri as part of my observing campaign in conjunction with the AAVSO, only for all those damned clouds Have all the charts ready to go as well, we just need some clear skies!!

You can easily see T Tauri itself with an 8 inch, and it's currently at about 10th magnitude, but the nebula is much more difficult, I wonder what's causing it to brighten?, a shockwave from t tauri or a new unseen star buried deep within the nebula?

I'll definitely follow this one up and I'll pass it on to the AAVSO discussion list to see what the guys think :shock:

Thanks for the alert,
BTW Albert, is this e-service free? how do you subscribe?
Keith...

BTW Albert, is this e-service free? how do you subscribe?
Keith...

You automatically get them when you join the BAA www.britastro.org .

The alerts are mailing relating to meetings and news of the BAA which is of very little interest to me, not being able to go to meetings! Very occasionally they send out a useful alert like the one above.

Cheers,
~Al