On August 14, I heard that a bright nova in the constellation Delphinus had been discovered. By luck, I had photographed the area just a few days earlier (Aug. 11) as well as a week earlier (Aug. 4). So I made the effort to get another photo as soon as I could (Aug. 15) to get a before/after set of photos. Unfortunately a first-quarter moon hampered my attempt to get a close exposure match to the previous two shots. On August 15, the estimated magnitude was 6. For detailed information on the brightness of the nova, see the AAVSO light curve.
In the widefield shots of Delphinus below, the nova is in the upper right corner. The spikes on the stars results from a 4-point star filter I was using on my lens to enhance the color of the brighter stars of the constellation shot series I had been shooting.
Select the image at left by clicking or running your mouse over the date:
04 Aug. |
11 Aug. |
15 Aug. |
|---|
Scroll down further to see enlargements of the area of the nova.
Technical details: Pentax 67 / Film: Medium format Kodak E200 (+2 push) / Lens: Pentax 165mm @ f/4 / 30 min. exposures except for 11 Aug. (45 minutes) / Mount: Losmandy Titan / Autpguider: SBIG ST-V
Select the enlargement image above by clicking or running your mouse over the date:
04 Aug. |
11 Aug. |
15 Aug. |
|---|
As you can see there is no obviously visible candidate for the star that flared up in the photos taken earlier.