Supernova from M77, picture from Bucharest Astroclub, Romania on November 30th, 2018

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Dec 01

2018

by Astroclubul Bucuresti

47 million years ago, a giant star from the Messier 77 Galaxy in the direction 
of the constellation Cetus collapsed gravitationally. 
In a few seconds, it nucleus undergoes a cataclysmic implosion that raises 
it temperature to several billion degrees Kelvin and whose shock wave 
spreads to the outer layers of the star making it to explode. 
It's just a type II Supernova. 
The giant temperature and pressure generated by this explosion are large enough
 to produce heavier chemical elements such as gold and platinum inside the star. 
The supernovae are so bright that if it is placed at a distance of 33 light years 
from us it would turn night in day for a few weeks while the Sun would be 
at the limit of visibility in cities as a magnitude star +4.8.

On the night of November 24th, 2018, the US-based DLT40 observes the Supernova 
and issued an alert for astronomers communities. 
Supernova gets the name SN 2018ivc and in a few hours it is seen by both 
professional  and amateur astronomers.

Last night (November 30th, 2018), we went out to catch the SN 2018vc and test 
the equipment in very cold environment (-9 CO) and under the urban sky conditions 
in Bucharest, Romania. 
The setup was installed outside at  the Astronomical Institute of 
the Romanian Academy and the commands were made remotly  from the inside of 
the Planetarium Hall. 
The image below is the result of a stack of 40  frames of 25 second exposure each, 
at a focal length of 2235mm. 
At the center of the frame is the M77 spiral galaxy and is annotated
 with SN 2018ivc Supernova position. 
To the left, we have a reversed-color galaxy detail that better reproduces 
the galactic halos and a detail in the color palette in which it is seen that 
the apparent brightness of the SN 2018ivc supernova is comparable to that of 
the galaxy it belongs to.

We thank the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy for  the support.

Technical details:

Software: remote control and full acquisition in Hyperion Prism Advanced.

Telescope: Celestron SCT 235mm

Mount: Skywatcher Eq6-R, unguided;

Camera: QHY 163M, gain 120, cooled to -30 ° C; Optolong L filter;

Frames: 30 frames L X 25 ", bin 2x2;

Authors: Daniel Bertesteanu and Marian Naiman 
(Members of Astroclubul Bucuresti, Romania)