Did I see a possible Nova?

[dgavin]

Here I was looking southwest last night, and sitting there low on the horizon was a very very bright star. I looked over my shoulder at mars then back at this star.

It was around the Deneb/Sadalsud/Formhault area of the sky. Comparing it's magnitude to Mars, i'd have to say it was about 10 times brighter and looked 3 times larger. I checked my charts and Venus was not visible at all, Nepune and Uranus were in that area also, but are far to dim to have been the culprit.

I was unable to get exact position so don't have co-ords to post.

I observed it over a good hour of time on and off, and it's position was static with the other stars, so wasn't a plane or satalite either.

Anyone have a clue what this object was?

[Eroica]

Wow! I have no idea what it was you saw. Could you pinpoint its location? Fomalhaut is a full 31^o from Sadal Suud.

If it was a nova, I'd expect more alerts on the Internet by now....

[dgavin]

I'll drag my scope outside after work to cool it down, and try to get a better location on it.

I'll need some help going from local coords to RA/Dec, I'm very much an amature and don't know how to do that yet, and my scope is totaly manual so everything in local coords

I hope it's still out there tonight! If it is will try getting a pic of it.

[dgavin]

I'd say it was closer to Fomalhaut, it had a dimmer (relitively spekaing) nieghbor just to the south and east of it, which I asusme was either Fomalhaut or Deneb.

It was almost due SW in the skies, at most 20 degree's above horizion, around 7pm Pacific time.

[dgavin]

Ok more information on this anomoly.

A co-worker has seen this for past four nights on thier drive home and each night it's been getting brighter.

Talking to them it sounds as if it's in the same position each night, just offset from a dimmer star by a few degrees. She has been browsing news sites for 2 evenings trying to figure out what it is, but has found nothing.

I will deffinately get a co-ord reading tonight, and possiblly try for a pic.

Going to email the BA and Night Sky 45, it's definately looking like the beginings of a nova or a super flare of somekind.

[jt-3d]

Any airports in that direction? Did it move down in that hour you watched it? If it was in space it should have. If it was just airplanes on approach they would all seem to be in the same place if far away. That is if you look and then look when another plane is coming in, they will seem to be in the same place. Oh and where are you?

edit: Oh yeah, I'm going to say Venus too.

[ngc3314]

Ok more information on this anomoly.

A co-worker has seen this for past four nights on thier drive home and each night it's been getting brighter.

Talking to them it sounds as if it's in the same position each night, just offset from a dimmer star by a few degrees. She has been browsing news sites for 2 evenings trying to figure out what it is, but has found nothing.

I will deffinately get a co-ord reading tonight, and possiblly try for a pic.

Going to email the BA and Night Sky 45, it's definately looking like the beginings of a nova or a super flare of somekind.

I may sound dense, but are you positive Venus isn't in that direction? It could still be noticeably above the horizon at 7 p.m. local time depending on just where you are (around here, it sets about 6:50), is about 10 times brighter than Mars, and has been moving night-to-night against some fairly bright stars in Scorpius. And lots of us have noticed Venus and Fomalhaut but nothing else bright in that direction from various places.

[dgavin]

I'll double check after lookign at it tonight again, it seemed awfully large for venus, and had a somewhat bluish tint.

However we also have inversion layer happening right now, so that might be causing some atmosperic lensing...

Once i get local co-ords tonight, i'll compare it to charts again and make sure it either is, or not, an atmosperic distortion of Venus.

Location is Salem Oregon

[The Bad Astronomer]

Sounds like Venus to me. Check out www.heavens-above.com or another online planetarium program to see.

[ToSeek]

I took a look upwards around 6:15 and saw Venus and only Venus in the southwest sky.

[Maksutov]

I'll double check after lookign at it tonight again, it seemed awfully large for venus, and had a somewhat bluish tint.

However we also have inversion layer happening right now, so that might be causing some atmosperic lensing...

Once i get local co-ords tonight, i'll compare it to charts again and make sure it either is, or not, an atmosperic distortion of Venus.

Location is Salem Oregon

You keep saying how "large" the object was. If this were a nova then it would be, like all other stars except the Sun, a point object with no apparent diameter. Are your able to focus at infinity? If not point objects are going to appear to have a disk, which is caused by the out-of-focus point-source light spreading out on your retinas. Brighter light sources usually result in larger discernible out-of-focus circles on the retina. This may account for the object appearing "3 times larger than Mars" to your eyes. Mars is definitely a point-source for human eyes.

Even for Venus, you should not see a disk, since. although it's the only planet in the sky that approaches the limit of human eye resolution, when that large, it is a crescent, not a disk.

BTW, Fomalhaut is also a long way from Deneb, more than 75° of arc.

As for what it was, a portion of the sky you described contains the celestial equator. I wonder if one of the new geostationary satellites has a large enough solar array to reflect sufficient light for such a display? That would explain its lack of apparent motion and repeat performances in the same location on subsequent nights.

[dgavin]

Ok looked again tonight and saw venus in the same location, being it's normal self.

I think what we saw here last night was an atmospheric distortion, as it seemed localized to the valley. Tonight venus appeared normal, but the inversion layer had also disipated.

What i saw with the distortion last night, appeared to be something about maybe a 20th the moons size, and much brighter then venus, with two faint ring like structures around it.

It was a weird sight, but with the double and triple inversion layes we get here, sometime the air does funky things to distant objects.

[beskeptical]

Venus, Mars Rule November Evening Sky

If it were a naked eye visible NOVA it'd be in the astronomy news on multiple links. For the telescope only visible NOVAs there are a number of research programs where I'm pretty sure you could find the data. Google for sky survey has multiple sites where NOVAs will be recorded as they occur. The Sloan Digital Sky survey is one site I'm pretty sure is watching for NOVAs in other galaxies.

[Eroica]

BTW, Fomalhaut is also a long way from Deneb, more than 75° of arc.

He's referring to Deneb Algiedi (Delta Capricorni), which is only 21^o from Fomalhaut.

[snabald]

Saw something similar about two weeks back, turns out there were some high "ice clouds" in the sky near Venus's direction that made a halo around Venus that made it appear nearly like a disk, it looked really cool.

[jt-3d]

Well the clouds parted tonight. It's Venus and it's bright too. It's farther east than I'm used to seeing it though. Might be worth getting the scope out this weekend even if my kids don't want to play.

[astromark]

Yes, Venus. Keep a eye on this one. As it goes beween us ( Earth ) and the sun it is going to get brighter and larger. If you can use a telescope to view this, you will see its just under half a disk. The other half being in shadow. As she slipes closer to the sun the creasant gets smaller, but brighter.
Venus is not often a nova, its often a ufo. Your sky has been playing tricks with you.

[Maksutov]

He's referring to Deneb Algiedi (Delta Capricorni), which is only 21^o from Fomalhaut.

Well sorry, but when someone posts

It was around the Deneb/Sadalsud/Formhault area of the sky. Comparing it's magnitude to Mars, i'd have to say it was about 10 times brighter and looked 3 times larger. I checked my charts and Venus was not visible at all, Nepune and Uranus were in that area also, but are far to dim to have been the culprit.

I think of Deneb in Cygnus. Pardon my ignorance. I should have spent my time looking for Nepune and Formhault.