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Some 21 million years ago, around the time that the
first known bipedal ape was believed to walk upright on two legs,
a dying star in the Galaxy M101 ( Pinwheel Galaxy) exploded.
The light from the explosion reached us around
08/24/2011 when it was discovered by the
Palomar Transient Factory and has been designated "PTF11kly".
The object, when discovered was at a magnitude of g=17.2, however as of
this day (8/30/2011) it had increased to around 13.4 mag. The
object is well placed within M101 for good photometry.
The (J2000) coordinates reported for
the object are
RA: 14:03:05.81 , Dec: +54:16:25.4
More information on this supernova can
be found at
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=3620
I will be monitoring
and calculate its magnitude (dimness) over time. As you can see by
the graph below, from the time I started to monitor it on Aug. 30 2011
it had increased in brightness. Please note that the smaller the
magnitude number the brighter the object is.
I will keep this graph
updated by getting at least one image a night (weather permitting) till
it is no longer visible.
If you are interested
in how to convert ADU ( Analog Digital Units) values to a
Magnitude value, check out this link
http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~physics/Contemp-Astronomy/starmag/starmag.html.
You will need the ADU and Magnitude numbers for a reference star
in the same field as the primary object as well as the ADU value of the
object in question. I use Nebulosity to get the ADU figures.
(This Page was last
changed
06/17/2014)
These measurements were taken in the visible light
without any color filters using an Orion SSP V2 on a SN8 at 5 minute
exposure dark subtracted and flat applied.
These images will be updated as I get more data.
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