Friday, August 16, 2013

helped them get the nova

Tony phoned from the CAO. He and Katrina couldn't find the nova.

At least they weren't certain. Didn't know if they were on the object. Had used the planetary nebula to get in the 'hood. Said they could easily see the nebula. Huh? Which telescope? They were using the Celestron 14 inch. Nope. Wrong 'scope. I encouraged them to use the Tele Vue with the lowest power eyepiece. Then I walked them through how I found it. And then I made a map in SkyTools and sent it over...

Then I tuned up the map, made an upright and laterally inverted version, and put them in the RASC's Yahoo!Group, for all.


For people with binoculars or viewing naked eye. Will work for people with a reflector telescope except the chart will need to be turned upside down.


For people using a telescope with an odd number of reflections. That's often the case with a refractor and an SCT or MCT with a mirror diagonal or prism diagonal attached. Up is up; but left is right.

Each chart features:
  • a 17 x 12 degree field
  • a circle about 6 degrees; the circle represents the field of view of 7 to 10 power which is typical of binoculars or a low power telescope
  • nearby stars are identified
  • numbers in parenthesis are the magnitude of the stars (without the decimal, i.e. 52 means magnitude 5.2)
  • two planetary nebulae are shown
  • dashed lines are shown to help "point" to the nova
  • there's a near little asterism of stars, perhaps a mini Orion, or "H" shape, near the nova
  • all the stars in the little asterism are around magnitude 6.5
Good luck!

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