CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 23rd in response to a glancing blow from a CME. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for midnight auroras. Aurora alerts: text, voice SUPERNOVA! Approximately 12 million years ago, a white dwarf star in the galaxy M82 exploded. This week, light from the distant supernova finally reached Earth. Amateur astronomers can see it through backyard telescopes as a fireball of magnitude +11.2 in one of the galaxys dusty spiral arms. Here is the view through an 8-inch telescope on Jan. 22nd: Larry McNish took the picture from the University of Calgarys Rothney Astrophysical Observatory in Alberta, Canada. I used a Canon 60D DSLR at the prime focus of an 8 inch Celestron SCT telescope, he says. This is just a single exposure of 60 seconds at ISO 6400 using a white balance of 3400K to reduce the sodium sky glow from Calgary. Although it is 12 million light years away, M82 is considered to be a next-door neighbor of the Milky Way. Indeed, this is the nearest supernova to Earth since SN 1993J was famously observed 21 years ago. The relative proximity of the blast makes it an attractive target for astronomers to study. Light curves from previous supernovas of this type suggest that the fireball could continue to brighten for the next two weeks. If you have a GOTO telescope, this evening command it to slew to the cigar galaxy or M82, and watch the explosion unfold.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:01:50 +0000
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