Telescope Reviews: Binocular Icon 41 : a supernova remnant in Taurus.

M1, a supernova remnant in Taurus.

Only a few supernovae are recorded through human history. One of such written records can be found in the Chinese annals of the Sung Dynasty. On the 4th of July, 1054 AD, a very bright new star was discovered next to the crescent moon in the constellation Taurus. The Chinese astronomers could see the nova during daytime until the 27th of July of the same year. At night, the star could be seen until the17th of April, 1056. This new star was probably brighter than Venus, and possibly brighter than the full moon. The event must have been the ‘hot’ item of the month throughout the whole world. Imagine how the night sky was lit up by this new guest star, adjacent to the crescent moon. Imagine how people everywhere interrupted their normal daily cycle to admire the brilliant guest star. And nobody could explain what had happened.
677 years later, in 1731, the English amateur astronomer John Bevis discovered the supernova remnant. In 1758 Charles Messier, while looking for comet Halley, found the object independently. At first Messier thought that he had found comet Halley. He soon realized that this comet-like patch did not have a proper motion. This event had two important consequences. It caused Messier to create his Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, and it brought Messier to start hunting for comets with telescopes.
The designation Crab Nebula found its origin in 1844 when William Parsons made a detailed sketch of the resolved filaments within M1.

Today, almost a thousand years after the catastrophic explosion of 1054, the supernova remnant can still be seen, even with small instruments. Look for a weak 5’ wide nebula at one degree NW of Zeta Tauri, the tip of the southern horn of Taurus. This little puff of smoke is the only fragile recollection of what was once a violent explosion, 6200 l-y away, but bright enough to read a newspaper at night.

Site : Le Castellard Melan, France ( 44° N )
Date : September 29, 2008
Time : around 00.30UT
Binoculars : TS Marine 15x70
FOV: 4.4°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 2/5
Transp. : 4/5
Sky brightness : 21.4 magnitudes per square arc second near zenith (SQM reading).
Nelm: 6.5
Sketch Orientation: N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with Corel Paint Shop Pro X2, based on a raw pencil sketch.

(Note: if the sketch does look too dark on your monitor, try to darken the room.)

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Rony

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Edited by rodelaet (10/26/08 02:03 PM)