Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2




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Here is an image of the recent nova in Sagittarius. I've been meaning to capture this for some time but never managed to wake up, so I decided to stay up instead. It reached an initial peak of magnitude +4.3 (sometime around March 22). Luckily for me, the nova displayed some erratic variability and has brightened this April 1st to a magnitude +4.8 after declining to around magnitude 6.

Here is the light curve by the AAVSO showing the increase in magnitude of the nova from its original peak. 


The nova was discovered by amateur astronomer John Seach on March 15 in Australia, and was initially labeled PNV J18365700-2855420. It is located at RA=18h 36m 56.8s and DEC=-28deg 55'40". The spectral signature indicates that it is a bright classical nova of the FeII spectral type. It is the brightest nova in Sagittarius since 1898.