Date/Time Start: 2023.05.19 10:35PM PDT Finish: 2022.05.20 03:15AM PDT
Location: Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada – N 48° 31′ 19″ W 123° 25′ 14″ Elevation: 224 metres
Conditions: Temp: 14°C Dew Point: 12°C Rel. Humidity: 55%; Calm winds ; Stability: 5/5 ; Seeing: 3/5; Darkness: 4.5 mag
Observers
RASC: Dan Posey, Randy Enkin, Ron Fisher, Joe Carr – in-person
Myles Morrison, Malcolm Kendall, Dave Payne – online
FDAO telescope operators: Ruhee, Erin – left early
Instrument: 72-inch/1.83m Plaskett telescope with CCD attached to the Newtonian focus.
- 15 Darks, 15 Bias
- Sloan Digital Sky filters being used
- Flats 30 sec: 5 iPrime Flats, 10 rPrime, 10 gPrime
- Bin: 2×2 – 0.6 arcsec
- Autoguiding not working on Newtonian focus
- Tour – 2023.05.19 10:45PM start
- M63 Sunflower Galaxy
- NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 Markarian’s Eyes
- NGC 4605 Faberge Egg Galaxy
- M82 Cigar Galaxy
- Park scope and refocus
- Imaging targets – 2023.05.20 00:00 midnight start
- 00:00 midnight – NGC 4565 Needle Galaxy
- 01:00AM – NGC 4605 Faberge Egg Galaxy
- 02:10AM – NGC 6914 reflection and emission nebula – 20h 24m 32s; 42 degrees 23′ 08″ – 3 subs for each filter – http://www.starrywonders.com/ngc6914.html
- 02:30AM – M101 Pinwheel Galaxy – Supernova 2023ixf was just discovered, and our images show it!
R.A. = 14h03m38s.564, Decl. = +54°18’42”.02
Located 227″.7 east and 134″.1 south of the center of M101 (Discovery image). Mag 14.4:5/20
RASC Victoria Centre members imaging through the Plaskett telescope.
AstroNote 2023-129 | Transient Name Server – differential photometry reported by Kendurker & Balam
My post to Facebook, along with the annotated galaxy image:
My astronomy buddies and I were taking advantage of our rare nights on the 72″ Plaskett telescope on Friday night and Saturday morning, touring some celestial objects, and then we settled in to take images from our observing list. Messier 101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy held a surprise for us, which we didn’t know about that night. The following day, we learned that Supernova 2023ixf had burst forth, being discovered by a Japanese astronomer a few hours previous to our observing session. Sure enough, when we looked in our image, there was an extra “spot” on the galaxy – an exploding star! The light from this galaxy takes 21 million years to reach us, so the energy from this event is only now arriving where we live in the Universe, allowing us to see it.