Amateur Discovers New Nebula

Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78. The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========
Jay McNeil (Paducah KY) recently noticed that a new nebula has appeared
in the region of M78 in Orion. This was observed with a small CCD camera
set-up. Passing this information along to Herbig-Haro expert Bo Reipurth (Univ
Hawaii), it has been found that the nebula has resulted from the outburst of an
embedded star behind the thick dark clouds in the region. The event is possibly
similar to eruptions of EX Lupi (prototype of the EXor variables). Material
has been submitted for an IAUC announcement, but there is no reason follow-up
observations should be delayed now that the Moon is getting out of the way in
the evening.

McNeil's Nebula (as it is being called for now) is about an arcminute
across, and is essentially a new deep-sky object---and is probably a visual
object. It is centered at roughly: 5 46 14 -00 05.8 (J2000). Those with CCD
cameras will immediately see what's going by comparing new images with your
favorite archive DSS images.

The erupting variable, which is too faint (at present) to appear in
McNeil's images, is located at the tapered southern tip of the new nebula, and
has been observed previously only from the near-IR and longward:

IRAS 05436-0007 = 2MASS J05461313-0006048: 5 46 13.14 -00 06 04.8 (J2000)

As no one just now knows when the nebula started to shine it's a good
idea to look on your old images of M78 and compare them with the latest images
you
take of the nebula.
===========

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
=============
Email: Remove "ic" from .comic above to respond

c (Bill Ferris) wrote in message ...
Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78. The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========
Jay McNeil (Paducah KY) recently noticed that a new nebula has appeared
in the region of M78 in Orion.

I can't even find M78 (

Gaz

c (Bill Ferris) wrote in message ...
Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78. The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========
Jay McNeil (Paducah KY) recently noticed that a new nebula has appeared
in the region of M78 in Orion.

I can't even find M78 (

Gaz

Bill Ferris wrote:

Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78. The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========

Any pictures yet?
What's the magnitude?

Ante

Bill Ferris wrote:

Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78. The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========

Any pictures yet?
What's the magnitude?

Ante

I can't even find M78

Hi:

Keep tryin'! It's a good object even for an 80mm f/5 refractor from decent
skies.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

I can't even find M78

Hi:

Keep tryin'! It's a good object even for an 80mm f/5 refractor from decent
skies.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Ante Perkovic wrote:
Any pictures yet?
What's the magnitude?

Ante
Here's a link to a side-by-side image comparison with an earlier image of M78
on the left and, on the right, an image taken by Jay McNeil that is labelled to
identify the new nebula: http://www.balinka.com/m78c.jpg

According to the IAU Circular #8284 announcing McNeil's discovery, this is a
reflection nebula in the 15 to 16 magnitude range. It's a good target for CCD
imagers and may be a visual target in large aperture telescopes. The
coordinates for McNeil's nebula a

RA: 05h 46m 14s; Dec: -00d 05.8m

Over the next two weeks, M78 is well placed for observing in a moonless evening
sky. Here's a link to my M78 page, which includes a finder chart for the
nebula: http://members.aol.com/billferris/m78hop.html

Here's the text of the circular: " A report was received from J. W. McNeil,
Paducah, KY, of the appearance of a new nebula in a dense region of the Lynds
1630 cloud in Orion, and apparently associated with IRAS 05436-0007, on his
unfiltered CCD images taken with a 7.6-cm refractor on Jan. 23 UT. The object,
which is located at R.A. = 5h46m14s, Decl. = -0o05'.8 (equinox 2000.0), was
then of total mag about 15-16 (with his CCD camera's sensitivity peaking at 575
nm), but it is not present on seven Digitized Sky Survey images from 1951 to
1991.

B. Reipurth, University of Hawaii (UH), confirms that a faint optical
counterpart to IRAS 05436-0007 has gone into outburst and has produced a large
reflection nebulosity, based on preliminary examination of red broadband CCD
images obtained with K. Meech at the UH 2.2-m telescope on Jan. 31. Reipurth
adds that this is a very rare event, apparently similar to that involving IRAS
05380-0728 (cf. Reipurth and Bally 1986, Nature 320, 336).

The outburst may be an EX-Lup-type or FU-Ori-type eruption, driven by a sudden
increase of accretion through a circumstellar disk, and thus in urgent need of
observation (see Herbig 1977, Ap.J. 217, 693; Lehmann et al. 1995, A.Ap. 300,
L9; Hartmann and Kenyon 1996, ARAA
34, 207). Reipurth also notes that HH 22 is in the line-of-sight of this new
nebula but is not physically involved with the nebula (Eisloeffel and Mundt
1997, A.J. 114, 280)."

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
=============
Email: Remove "ic" from .comic above to respond

Ante Perkovic wrote:
Any pictures yet?
What's the magnitude?

Ante
Here's a link to a side-by-side image comparison with an earlier image of M78
on the left and, on the right, an image taken by Jay McNeil that is labelled to
identify the new nebula: http://www.balinka.com/m78c.jpg

According to the IAU Circular #8284 announcing McNeil's discovery, this is a
reflection nebula in the 15 to 16 magnitude range. It's a good target for CCD
imagers and may be a visual target in large aperture telescopes. The
coordinates for McNeil's nebula a

RA: 05h 46m 14s; Dec: -00d 05.8m

Over the next two weeks, M78 is well placed for observing in a moonless evening
sky. Here's a link to my M78 page, which includes a finder chart for the
nebula: http://members.aol.com/billferris/m78hop.html

Here's the text of the circular: " A report was received from J. W. McNeil,
Paducah, KY, of the appearance of a new nebula in a dense region of the Lynds
1630 cloud in Orion, and apparently associated with IRAS 05436-0007, on his
unfiltered CCD images taken with a 7.6-cm refractor on Jan. 23 UT. The object,
which is located at R.A. = 5h46m14s, Decl. = -0o05'.8 (equinox 2000.0), was
then of total mag about 15-16 (with his CCD camera's sensitivity peaking at 575
nm), but it is not present on seven Digitized Sky Survey images from 1951 to
1991.

B. Reipurth, University of Hawaii (UH), confirms that a faint optical
counterpart to IRAS 05436-0007 has gone into outburst and has produced a large
reflection nebulosity, based on preliminary examination of red broadband CCD
images obtained with K. Meech at the UH 2.2-m telescope on Jan. 31. Reipurth
adds that this is a very rare event, apparently similar to that involving IRAS
05380-0728 (cf. Reipurth and Bally 1986, Nature 320, 336).

The outburst may be an EX-Lup-type or FU-Ori-type eruption, driven by a sudden
increase of accretion through a circumstellar disk, and thus in urgent need of
observation (see Herbig 1977, Ap.J. 217, 693; Lehmann et al. 1995, A.Ap. 300,
L9; Hartmann and Kenyon 1996, ARAA
34, 207). Reipurth also notes that HH 22 is in the line-of-sight of this new
nebula but is not physically involved with the nebula (Eisloeffel and Mundt
1997, A.J. 114, 280)."

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
=============
Email: Remove "ic" from .comic above to respond

"Ante Perkovic" wrote in message
...
Bill Ferris wrote:

Congratulations to Jay McNeil on his discovery of a new nebula near M78.
The
following is from Brian Skiff of Lowell Observatory:
===========

That is amazing to me. Congrats to Jay. This must feel awesome. So often
does an event like this occur and how long does it take? I mean, this just
didn't blip on last night, right?

BV.
www.iheartmypond.com