Comet spotted near Xmas Tree Nebula and Supernova confirmation

The potential supernova PSN J02490078+1544058 = SNhunt271 has been confirmed spectroscopically in ATEL 6848 as a Type II SN. This was discovered last Friday by the Catalina Real Time Transient Survey in UGC 2289 (PGC 10661).

Christmas Eve - Wednesday 24th December 2014. Clouds and new cataclysmic Variable candidates in Auriga and Gemini

Christmas Eve! As I made a late night delivery of cards to some of my neighbours I looked up - massive clouds prevented any real view of the night sky but every now and then a star or two would appear in gaps in the cloud that would be quickly blotted out. Lancashire winter weather is fairly predictable - with only a few exceptions of occasional clear skies. I hope I am proved wrong in this respect over the next few months.

I received an electronic circular today (TA EC 3049) informing me that a potential Cataclysmic Variable had been discovered in Auriga on Monday in the form of an optical transient at an unfiltered magnitude of 16.8. by Shurpakov et al. The details are in the astronomer's telegram number 6847.(All Astronomer's Telegrams are automatically fed to the home page of my website).

Image Courtesy of MASTER - Click image for source

Another likely Cataclysmic Variable discovered on Sunday was reported in the same telegram in the constellation of Gemini at magnitude 18.6.

Courtesy of MASTER Click image to go to the source.

 TA EC 3049 also updated me on the supernovae 2014dn, 2014do and 2014dp. The links take you to Dave Bishop's data on each SN. You will need to search within the appropriate page for the particular SN.

The Minor Planet Juno

Discovery

From the Lancaster Gazette of 11th May 1805

ASTRONOMY. Another new planet has been discovered by M. Harding, of Lilienthal, near Bremen, to which he has given the name of Juno. It is of the eighth magnitude, and attracted his attention while comparing with the heavens the 50,000 stars observed by Messrs. Lalande. It appeared to have a peculiar motion, and after observing it for several days, he clearly ascertained that it was a planet. Its right ascension on the 5th of September was 1° 52, its north declination 0° 11. The same planet was observed by M. Burckhardt, on the 23d of Sept. at 3-9* 7 4° 6, from which he inferred that the dura- tion of its revolution is five years and a half. The following particulars have also been ascertained : its inclination is 21". Its eccentricity is a quarter of its radius. Its mean distance from the sun is three times that of the earth, or about 100 millions of leagues ; it is consequently farther than Ceres, or Pallas, whose distance is 96,000,000. Its diameter has not yet been ascertained ; but its size appears nearly tbe same as that of Ceres, or the planet discovered by Piazzi. This is the twelfth planet discovered within a few years, Herschell having discovered Uranus and its six satellites, and two new satellites to Saturn : Piazzi discovered Ceres, and Olbers discovered Pallas. M. Piazzi, the celebrated Astronomer of Palermo, has ascertained a change on the fixed stars of one, two, and three seconds, on account of the situation of the earth in its orbit. This effect of the annual parallax, concerning which disputes have existed for more than a century, is considered of great interest to men of science. 

Current Position and Brightness

Juno is currently in the constellation of Hydra as shown in the chart below. It has a magnitude of 8.61.

Object Name: 3 Juno
Object Type: Asteroid (Small Database)
Altitude: +30° 05' 48"
Constellation: Hydra
RA (Topocentric): 08h 59m 04s
Dec (Topocentric): +00° 20' 55"
RA (2000.0): 08h 58m 16s
Dec (2000.0): +00° 24' 34"
Azimuth: 140° 57' 54"
Magnitude: 8.61
Rise Time: 20:59
Transit Time: 03:07
Set Time: 09:12
Hour Angle: -02h 12m 04s
Air Mass: 1.99
Earth Distance (au): 1.43
Sun Distance (au): 2.20
RA Rate (arcsecs/sec): -0.002579
Dec Rate (arcsecs/sec): -0.000203
Date: 22/12/2014
Time: 00:55:43 STD
Constellation (Abbrev.): Hya
Screen X: 363.67
Screen Y: 250.22
Epoch Month: 12.0000
Epoch Day: 22.0387
Epoch Year: 2014.0000
Mean Anomaly: 36.0177
Eccentricity: 0.2555
Semi-Major Axis: 2.6708
Inclination: 12.9818
Long. of the Ascending Node: 169.8701
Longitude Perihelion: 248.4136
Ecliptic: 1.0000
Magnitude 1: 5.3300
Magnitude 2: 0.3200
Heliocentric Longitude: 2.1°
Heliocentric Latitude: -0.2°
Heliocentric Radius: 2.2025
Phase Angle: 19.7265
Sidereal Time: 06:47
Julian Date: 2457013.53869795
Click Distance: 0.0000
Celestial Type: 37
Index: 0
Text Record Start: 0
Constellation Number: 41

Georgium Sidus in the News 1790 Derby Mercury - Thursday 28 January 1790

Derby Mercury - Thursday 28 January 1790

I find this article  interesting because reference is made to the planet Georgium Sidus before it was renamed Uranus. It was discovered by Herschel almost nine years before on March 13th 1781 from his garden shown below.

Another clear night

It was clear last night but the Moon was at 99.58% around Midnight and blotted out most of the stars. Combined with the light pollution there was not much else to see apart from the brightest stars. This was where the Moon was around Midnight last night.

Chart and Data Courtesy of Software Bisque The SkyX

 The Lunar Data from Leyland last night

Object Name: Moon
Altitude: +53° 14' 01"
Constellation: Taurus
RA (Topocentric): 04h 25m 04s
Dec (Topocentric): +17° 09' 52"
RA (2000.0): 04h 24m 11s
Dec (2000.0): +17° 07' 56"
Azimuth: 188° 42' 14"
Phase (%):  99.58% (waxing)
Rise Time: 15:41
Transit Time: 23:35
Set Time: 06:34
Air Mass: 1.25
RA Rate (arcsecs/sec): 0.425854
Dec Rate (arcsecs/sec): 0.041779
Date: 05/12/2014
Time: 23:58:48 STD
Constellation (Abbrev.): Tau
Moon Ecliptic Longitude:  67° 27' 27"
Moon Ecliptic Latitude: -03° 52' 36"
Moon Parallax: 0.9497
Moon Angular Diameter:   0° 31' 03"
Moon Distance (km): 384,829.02
Moon True RA: 4.4216
Moon True Dec: 17.7266
Moon Topocentric Ang. Diameter: 0.5245
Moon Alt w/Refraction: 53.6481
Moon Total Libration l: 4.7825
Moon Total Libration b: 5.1257
Moon Optical Libration l: 4.7732
Moon Optical Libration b: 5.0771
Moon Physical Libration l: 0.0093
Moon Physical Libration b: 0.0486
Moon Position Angle: -10.1438
Phase Angle: 7.3877
Moon Pos. Angle of Bright Limb: 229.3711
Moon's Age (Days Past New): 13.46
Sidereal Time: 04:47
Julian Date: 2456997.49916817
Click Distance: 0.0000
Frame Size (arcmins): 31.4698
Celestial Type: 35
Index: 10
Constellation Number: 77
It is worth having a look at Google Moon which has some new features.

Back in the UK - The Moon and Sirius

I drove from Portsmouth to Lancashire yesterday - the weather was very sunny compared to the downpours that I encountered in Bilbao when trying to locate the port exit from the A8 - but extremely cold! The crossing was not particularly comfortable in that the sea was rough - I got more than an inkling of this when I was advised to make sure that the handbrake was on my vehicle as it was going to be rough and the chocks placed inder my wheels. En-route to the cabin a lady member of the French staff guiltily refilling sick bag holders in the corridor was another clue. My cabin was on deck 7 at the bow end in the centre so I could see exactly what the captain upstairs (I don't think that is a term sailors would use) could see. The movement of the head of the flagpole at the bow gave an idea of the movement of the ship as it moved up and down vertically with respect to the horizon. It was worse overnight but I seem to have my sea legs now - although I slept through most of it. The most annoying thing was that at the bottom of the trough it sounded as though a large piece of resonant metal was being hit with a huge sledgehammer - quite a bang! This must have some effect on the integrity of the hull and I suppose is a a factor in the lifetime of the ship.

As I approached Winter Hill to my right from the M6 I could see the Moon fairly low to the horizon above the hill with a phase (Waxing) of 90% and exhibiting the apparent Moon enlargement that is often talked about.

Later that night I could see Orion to the South East and Sirius. A clear night but with my telescopes still packed in the truck - no chance for telescopic observing or imaging.

The Constellations of Cassiopeia and Auriga

I took this image of Cassiopeia on Wednesday

 

Where is Cassiopeia? I used astrometry.net to find out

I also took an image of Auriga and suroundings

and this is the plate solved image

Ursa Major and some Messier Galaxies

I took this image of the Plough - otherwise called the Big Dipper.

 

There are a number of objects of interest in and near Ursa Major - including a number of Messier objects as shown in the chart below

 Here is one of them - Messier 109

Messier 109 in Ursa Major - 60s exp. SBIG ST9XE C14M101 is another galaxy in the constellation

Messier 101 in Ursa Major SBIG ST9XE C14

Messier 81

Messier 81 in Ursa Major - 60s exp. SBIG ST9XE C14

M82

Messier 82 in Ursa Major - 60s exp. SBIG ST9XE C14

The Hyades and the Pleiades imaged this morning just after midnight.

Last night was clear and I took this image of the Hyades and Pleiades

The Hyades and Pleides Clusters in the constellation of Taurus 30s exp. f/6.3 ISO 1600 Sony A350 DSLRHere is a chart identiying some of the stars

and an expanded chart of the Pleiades

Learning about Astronomy

Today's "Amateur Night Sky Daily" is all about finding current astronomical information and learning about astronomy. It includes links to information sites and some introductory videos about astronomy - there are many of these available online.

Weather has been variable this week as the following images from my observing site will illustrate.

I did manage some early morning shots

Before sunrise looking East 10 seconds exp. ISO 3200

The 10s ISO 3200 image below of Orion setting illustrates the growing problem of light pollution.

A single house at 7 a.m. can produce a lot of light.