09-05-2011, 11:17 PM
RustyNearby Supernova!
Most are distant around 1 billion (or more) light years, but this one's only 21 MILLION light years away in M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy.
M101 will appear only as a faint smudge in 80mm optics, but its supernova will mark it. It will take (at 80mm) averted vision to truly discern M101.
See
here. NOTE: The first image is misleading, being M64 (The Black-eye Galaxy); ignore it.
Rusty
"StaRV II"'94 28' Breakaway: MilSpec AMG 6.5L TD 230HP
Nelson and Chester, not-spoiled Golden Retrievers
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not.
In either case the idea is quite staggering. - Arthur C. Clarke
It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I've been searching thirty years to find her and thank her - W. C. Fields
09-06-2011, 08:02 AM
Steve VWAwesome! Thanks for the reference. I will look tonight. Not often you'll see anything that happened so recently, only 21 million years ago!
09-12-2011, 11:50 AM
Tom and JulieOk, so how long will we be able to observe this? I just got the wife's 6" telescope out and assembled it but am still searching for the eye pieces which she tells me are in a black net bag "somewhere". I downloaded the instruction manual and I think I can figure it out, but the search may take a few days.
