As it happens M-51 is one of the galaxies I've been imaging every clear night now for months in hopes of catching a SN. Last time it was clear was the morning of the 1st. Cloudy the 2nd. And last night when the thing apparently blew I was lecturing at Bryce Canyon. I sure hope it was cloudy here in the north so I would not have been able to image even if I had been home. :) Next time... patrick On 03 Jun 2011, at 06:29, Jay Eads wrote:
From the AAVSO:
AAVSO Special Notice #241
Supernova in M51 June 3, 2011
A new supernova in M51 was discovered by A. Riou and confirmed by several sources, including the Palomar Transient Factory (Silverman et al., ATEL 3398). It is located at 13:30:05.08 +47:10:11.2 J2000 and has a magnitude of about 13.5. Nice images of the supernova can be found at: http://6888comete.free.fr/fr/imageSN.htm
PTF also obtained a spectra from Keck, indicating that this is a type II supernova with a relatively blue continuum with P-Cygni profiles in the Balmer series.
This is a unique event, because it occurs in a galaxy that is imaged almost constantly. There must be many photos available that show the rise of this SNe, so the data-mining opportunity is obvious. It is transiting at local twilight and should be observable for northern hemisphere observers for several months.
A new APASS sequence should be uploaded soon. We recommend taking nightly monitoring images in B and V for CCD observers, along with visual estimates, until the supernova is no longer visible.
Here is an excuse to take the 10 millionth image of M51! Arne
Yes, great opportunity to image it or to view it. I'll be going for it tonight.
-- Jay Eads