42 replies to this topic

[Dunkstar]

Folks,

 

I'd like to thank fellow Southern Hemisphere star watcher @maroubraboy for the heads-up on this SN! I was at the end of an imaging run and was about to park the scope for the night and then...

 

SN 2024ggi is currently glowing at the southern end of mag+9.4 spiral galaxy NGC 3621 in the constellation of Hydra. The galaxy appears to lack a bright core like many other spirals, but there are 3 navigational bright-ish stars to help locate the SN.

 

1. SAO 202300 (mag.+10.27) on the western flank of the southern end of the galaxy
2. TYC 7206-0545-1 (mag.+10.68, more orangey) on the southern tip of the galaxy (although there is some faint extension further south that is harder to discern from the suburbs)
3. GAIA 5402967089120658816 (mag.+12.7) on the eastern flank of the southern end of the galaxy

The supernova is lurking more adjacent to the latter two, and appears slightly more dim than the GAIA star (3), roughly 20% fainter _really_ roughly judging from pixel values (take with big pinch of salt).

 

This shot is a total of 1 hour of 60 second exposures with a ZWO ASI2600MC on my 8" newt.

 

Will try again when cloud/rain/Moon permits...

 

Cheers,
Dunk

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[Dunkstar]

Plate solved / annotated.

 

The supernova is just below-right of the terminal '1' of TYC7206-545-1

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[Mert]

Nice image and good catch!!

[AdrianoMS]

Nice capture!

[maroubra_boy]

Nice get, Dunk!

I've had two opportunities to view SN 2024ggi over successive two nights. The first night was within 24 hours of the discovery of the SN which was very early in its detonation. Using a 9" Mak set up in my backyard in inner Sydney and without a finder chart for the SN, I went about on a Hail Mary to see if I could spot the "super new star" against the plotted stars on the charts of NGC 3621 I have. And luck was on my side when I managed to spot a very faint star that was not plotted while much fainter stars were - BINGO! Wedged between two other stars, one mag 10.7 the other 12.7 (as noted in Dunk's post), this first view of the SN was fainter and took everything I had to catch a glimpse of it. The parent galaxy is not visible through the eyepiece - light pollution is just too much.

Last night the SN was brighter than the mag 12.7 star beside it and much easier to spot without the same fight.

Will be one to keep an eye on over the coming days and few weeks to monitor its progress. That it was found so early in its explosion is a bonus.

Alex.

Edited by maroubra_boy, 13 April 2024 - 07:49 PM.

[EM10SP]

Super shot,very nice.

[Dunkstar]

Last night the SN was brighter than the mag 12.7 star beside it and much easier to spot without the same fight.

Will be one to keep an eye on over the coming days and few weeks to monitor its progress. That it was found so early in its explosion is a bonus.

Cheers Alex! I would have parked the scope oblivious without your ping 

 

Definitely seemed brighter last night… my unscientific method of measuring the pixel values in images from the two nights suggests it was roughly 2x brighter…but that method would be riddled with inaccuracies.

 

Changing weather here will prolly prevent me seeing it again this week, but there must be others in the Southern Hemisphere with better conditions 

[luxo II]

@Dunk - congratulations - I’m on holiday otherwise The Beast would have been deployed on this

Edited by luxo II, 14 April 2024 - 06:04 AM.

[DrGJC]

Thanks Dunk and Alex.

I took a Seestar image of NGC 3621 last night but forgot to focus before hand.

It was cloudy when I tried again.

The SN is brighter than the mag 12.4 star next to it. (Guide Project Pluto magnitude)

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[Astrokoala]

This is outstanding. I'm going to be writing an article about the supernova for IFLScience. Would it be ok to use this image? I'd offer to pay, but unfortunately we're only set up to do that through a couple of online photo hosts, so unless you're with one of them the bureacracy of getting a transfer is too much for it to be worth it.

Naturally we'd include whatever credit and links you would like.

Stephen Luntz

[Dunkstar]

High cloud prevented photon collection last night (Sunday night), but here is a comparison shot (warts and all!) showing the slight difference I mentioned in my previous post. It seems the conditions were slightly better on Saturday night as the smaller stars are slightly tighter. However, to me the SN still looks slightly larger.

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[Dunkstar]

This is outstanding. I'm going to be writing an article about the supernova for IFLScience. Would it be ok to use this image? I'd offer to pay, but unfortunately we're only set up to do that through a couple of online photo hosts, so unless you're with one of them the bureacracy of getting a transfer is too much for it to be worth it.

Naturally we'd include whatever credit and links you would like.

Stephen Luntz

Hi Stephen - send me a PM and we can work something out. I'm not in this for financial gain, more for getting the info out there so more folk can experience it 

[eros312]

Hope you don't mind,  but here's a seestar image I took a few hours ago from Tampa, Florida. 

 

[Dunkstar]

Hope you don't mind,  but here's a seestar image I took a few hours ago from Tampa, Florida. 

 

FB_IMG_1713164179552.jpg

Awesome! Readily visible at current magnitude 

[Epick Crom]

That is a fantastic image of the new supernova Dunk. Very well done!

[bigmac2x2]

Hi All,

 

The Astronomical Society of Tasmania is doing a session tonight (will be virtually cloud free here in Hobart) of the SN.

They will be trying to take images through the 30mm x 2 inch eyepiece on the C14 with their smart phones.

 

I will head out to Buckland Tas in Bortle 2 skies to see what I can get from a SVBony 80mm (560mm focal length) scope with a zwo 585mc camera.  

 

Saturday will be the next best night, but the moon will be at 93% then, so it may get washed out a bit.

 

Cheers

[luxo II]

It was imaged a few days ago from a Bortle 6-7 site in Sydney  using a similar small 80/560mm reflector so it’s not really necessary to use a dark site. A bigger challenge for the next 10-12 days is moonlight.

 

An L-Pro filter will help.

Edited by luxo II, 17 April 2024 - 04:27 AM.

[Dunkstar]

Cloud / rain has prevented me getting any further shots, but if it has gotten brighter than last weekend then it should be readily visible with a small telescope.

[Lizardman]

Freakin spectacular

[bigmac2x2]

Hi All,

 

Here is 4 1/2 minutes I took before the clouds came in on SN 2024ggi last night from Bortle 2 skies.

 

Will try again on Saturday, but the moon may be my enemy :/

Cheers

 

 

SVBony 503ed @ 560mm

ZWO 585mc uncooled

Star Adventure GTi

ASI Air mini

Edited by bigmac2x2, 17 April 2024 - 08:02 PM.

[Lizardman]

It seems as if the past few supernovas like the recent one ; I believe in the Whirlpool and this one are on the outer most part of the galaxies spiral arms. Is this a coincidence or what is theory ?

[luxo II]

You have some reading to do re the lifecycle of stars and the H-R diagram, see for example https://phys.librete...tar_Life_Cycles

The second issue is whether the galaxy id actively forming new stars and why that occurs - or not.

Edited by luxo II, 18 April 2024 - 03:19 PM.

[Dunkstar]

A quick shot from last night (only 30 minutes total exposure), as the Moon was up and washing out the sky... it was clear, so I had to have a go 

 

I seem to have lost the blue hue from the SN itself, but I'm going to put that down to the Moon light contamination.

 

I'm going to guesstimate that it's around mag.12 currently, as it seems brighter (from the raw pixel values) than the adjacent mag.12.7 star by about 2x.

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Edited by Dunkstar, 19 April 2024 - 11:01 PM.

[Foc]

Thanks Dunk for the info on this Supernova

 

Heard about it a bit late, but perhaps this late cropped image from the city skies of Canberra gives some idea on how it is progressing now. If I can trust the stars on this image then it appears to have expanded a little relative to the other stars when compared to the image on the 13th April.

 

 

For this capture I just did a rough manual focus for this rig, as it is largely set up as an optical rather than an imaging telescope so stars are a bit blobby.. Camera is 2600mc, mount AM5.  For what is worth for converting from local time, I think 20.54 local time on 19 April  is about 10.54am UT.

 

Oh...you have just posted so perhaps mine is redundant

 

 

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[Dunkstar]

That’s a fine result IMO mate!! Great comparison.

 

I’d speculate my stars are tighter because the f-ratio is prolly faster and I’m pretty sure it was in focus. The ”beauty” of diffraction spikes is that they split when just a little out of focus.

 

We’re rained in again here… very wet autumn. Hope the clouds will blow away by last quarter or so 

Edited by Dunkstar, 20 April 2024 - 05:46 AM.