McNeil's missing nebula

The nebula discowered by amateur astronomer Jay McNeil two years ago
http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/m78Lrgb
appears to have disappeared or faded substantially. I did not detect
it at all in a 4 min CCD image taken with a 6" Mak on 2005-12-25
http://www.mysky.org/mysky/?article_...rticle=1:24747

The nebula has been found on photographs from the 1960's so it clearly
has a history of appearing and disappearing. Has anyone observed it
lately?

pej
--
Per Erik Jorde

Some kind of long-period variable star in play here? Probably too young
to be a Mira type. Perhaps a flaring up of a newborn star which then
faded to "normal" brightness?

Per Erik Jorde wrote:
The nebula discowered by amateur astronomer Jay McNeil two years ago
http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/m78Lrgb
appears to have disappeared or faded substantially. I did not detect
it at all in a 4 min CCD image taken with a 6" Mak on 2005-12-25
http://www.mysky.org/mysky/?article_...rticle=1:24747

The nebula has been found on photographs from the 1960's so it clearly
has a history of appearing and disappearing. Has anyone observed it
lately?

pej


Nove 30, 2005

http://www.celestial-images.com/Imag...n_Complex.html


Appears to be there

Regards

Bill

--

William R. Mattil : http://www.celestial-images.com

That looks like the nby 'Herbig-Haro' object.
"William R. Mattil" wrote in message
om...
The nebula has been found on photographs from the 1960's so it clearly
has a history of appearing and disappearing. Has anyone observed it
lately?

pej


Nove 30, 2005

http://www.celestial-images.com/Imag...n_Complex.html


Appears to be there

Regards

Bill

--

William R. Mattil : http://www.celestial-images.com

Originally Posted by urban astronomer

Some kind of long-period variable star in play here? Probably too young
to be a Mira type. Perhaps a flaring up of a newborn star which then
faded to "normal" brightness?

I'm not a VS expert but T Tau/Hinds Variable Neb comes to mind.
Nytecam

Yes. The nebulosity and the star have both faded over the past
year or so. The central star is now just about at the same
magnitude it had before the outburst in 2003/4.

The X-ray flux has likewise nearly returned to its
pre-outburst level.

At the moment, the evidence seems to support
a model in which a burst of accretion from the disk
surrounding the young star led to an increase in
luminosity at all wavelengths.

Look for a paper in ApJ (and astro-ph) sometime in
the next few weeks.

Michael Richmond

On Jan 28th 2006, last night. I was able to see it with 7 mag night sky.
If you don't have a 7 mag night sky you won't be ale to see it, with the naked eye and a telescope.
Unless you do CCD or camera...

Unless you are mistaking NGC 2064?
"Paul Clark" wrote in message
...
That looks like the nby 'Herbig-Haro' object.
"William R. Mattil" wrote in message
om...
The nebula has been found on photographs from the 1960's so it clearly
has a history of appearing and disappearing. Has anyone observed it
lately?

pej


Nove 30, 2005

http://www.celestial-images.com/Imag...n_Complex.html


Appears to be there

Regards

Bill

--

William R. Mattil : http://www.celestial-images.com