Supernovae from Worth Hill ObservatoryWhat are supernovae?
Some of the greatest stellar cataclysms that man has ever witnessed. The exploding star brightens by twenty or more magnitudes becoming several hundred million times brighter than the sun. Supernovae occur at a frequency of 1x/300yr/galaxy, only four such explosions have been recorded in our galaxy in the last 1000yr. Dedicated SN searchers regularly monitor tens of galaxies/observing run hoping to discover a new star . Here are a few images of recent discoveries: All images are 4x40 sec exposures with 50cm f/4 and SXCCD. Occasionally we get a false alarm should an asteroid pass in front of a galaxy, this is just what happened here!
SN2002ap in M74
Eight months later and the supernova is still visible:
SN1999cl in M88
SN1999by - Ron Arbour's fourth SN discovery in NGC 2841
SN1998aq - discovered by Mark Armstrong in NGC 3982 on 1998 April 13th. Mag 14.9 SN1999aa - Ron Arbour's third SN discovery in NGC 2595
SN1998an - discovered by Ron Arbour in UGC 3683 on 1998 April 6th. Mag 15.3
SN1998bu - discovered by Mirko Villi in M96 on 1998 May 9th. Mag 12.7
Check out the latest discoveries at the International Supernova Network
