SN 2004dj, TV76, 8/6/04

Date: Friday evening, 6-Aug-2004
Location: Cottonwood campground, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Equipment: Tele Vue 76 (3" f/6.3) refractor

At the end of astronomical twilight about 9:15pm local time galaxy NGC
2403 was only 13=B0 above horizon just west of due north. Using the TV76
the galaxy itself was fairly easy to see. (Visible in 10x42 binoculars
even.) A soft oval glow. Using the AAVSO finder chart (link below) for
SN 2004dj i carefully matched the brighter foreground stars to my
eyepiece view. Then bingo... Using the 6-3mm Nagler zoom set at 6mm i
saw the supernova! At first it would pop into view then i'd loose it.
But with practice i could hold it reliably at 80x. Wow! Now neat!
Using the 10mm Radian for 48x i could just catch fleeting glimpses of
the supernova. I'm sure during another time of year when NGC 2403 is
higher in the sky that the supernova would be quite an easy target.

Comment about the chart. The two stars on either side of the galaxy
core were plainly visible. However just west of the western star is a
second star on the chart. This star i could not see. But the supernova
was exactly where the chart shows. Chart is here...

http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/shrinkw...AM/SN2004DJ/S=
N2004DJE.JPG


-Florian
Stargazing.com