An IAU Circular landed in my inbox yesterday, announcing another supernova discovery. I don't normally get too excited about such things because they are not particularly rare any more and most of them are quite faint, 18th magnitude and fainter. Every once in a while a bright one pops up, and if it is brighter than 14th magnitude the AAVSO sends out an alert notice for our observers to observe it and report data to the International Database.
 |
Discovery image of SN 2011ja
Credit: Berto Monard |
The subject of this circular was around 14th magnitude so it got my attention, and then I saw it was discovered by South African amateur Berto Monard, who I have featured here on the blog in the past-
Berto Monard- First Magnitude Amateur Astronomer. When we last talked he was closing in on 100 supernova discoveries, so I sent off a quick email to ask him how many this made.
Berto wrote back a short while later to tell me this is his 116th discovery! And he has another one in the queue that is just waiting for spectroscopic confirmation and follow up.
I told you he was incredible.
No comments:
Post a Comment