Minggu, 03 November 2013

Congratulations, it's a Supernova!

Last night after dinner, I laid down to take a nap (I start observing
around midnight or so in summer). I heard a message come in on my
phone, so I checked to see if it was anything important. As it turns
out, it was an urgent plea for help from Bob Moore (Caroline Moore's
dad, the teenage girl who discovered a SN at age 14). He is trying to
confirm a suspected SN discovery but can't find any useful comparison
stars near the obscure galaxy he is examining, can I please help?

Mind you, I only get a few hours sleep a day when its clear, so I was
thinking, "shit, why did I have to check that message."

Well, Bob is a friend and I know how excited I would be if I thought I
had a SN discovery, so I called him, got the information and went back
down to the office to see if I could help him. After maybe 45 minutes
or so I had put together some reasonable photometry for him to measure
his SN with, emailed him the chart and wished him luck. I fell asleep
quickly after that.

Around lunch time today, I called Bob to see if there was any news
yet; had it been confirmed? "Nothing yet", he said, but Mike Peoples
and collaborators were pretty sure they had confirmation images from
California.

About an hour ago the Telegram from the IAU announcing the discovery
of SN 2010ew popped up in my mailbox. I forwarded a copy to Bob with
the title "Congratulations, It's A Boy".

I'm happy for you Bob et al, but don't call me after 6PM tonight. I'm
really tired now, and it's going to be unmercifully clear here for
days on end. I need some sleep.

*******************************************************

Electronic Telegram No. 2345
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Room 209; Dept. of Earth and Planetary
 Sciences; Harvard University; 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbat@iau.org; cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


SUPERNOVA 2010ew
   M. Peoples, J. Newton, and T. Puckett report the discovery of an apparent
supernova (mag 16.6) on unfiltered CCD images (limiting mag 18.5) taken with
a 0.40-m reflector at Portal, AZ, U.S.A., on June 28.39 UT in the course of
the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search.  The new object, which was confirmed
at mag 16.6 on images (limiting mag 19.8) taken by P. Mortfield and S.
Cancelli on June 29.48 with a 0.40-m reflector at Sierra Remote Observatories
in California, is located at R.A. = 18h37m11s.88, Decl. = +30o37'49".6
(equinox 2000.0), which is 4".6 west and 7".1 north of the center of the
presumed host galaxy.  Nothing is visible at this position on images taken by
Puckett on June 13 (limiting mag 19.1); however, T. Orff reports a precovery
image (limiting magnitude of 18.5) taken by Puckett on June 20, which shows
2010ew at mag 17.1.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
    superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                       (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 July 1                      (CBET 2345)              Daniel W. E. Green

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