Christmas Eve - Wednesday 24th December 2014. Clouds and new cataclysmic Variable candidates in Auriga and Gemini
Wednesday, December 24, 2014 at 11:15PM 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.