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by Lance Shaw
Well! Surprize, surprize, surprize...
Seems a small prayer was answered. I had a guy take my gear (90mm Mak, 16x80 binocs, tripod) up to a spot partially shielded from most of the lights at the beginning of my shift...saved up my breaks... one scare at around 1 am... clouds, coming in from the north, still very, very windy and bitingly cold... the weather report said the wind would die down tonight sometime, when???
At around 3 am, the wind died down, somewhat... I got my chance and went for it... told the on-shift supervisor what I was about to do...grabbed the unit truck and headed up the hill... Am I going to be able to find it? Is it still rising in brightness? Will I have time to set up the Mak, if it's faint? I'm not real practiced with the Mak, but I have a reversed field chart. Will it work? Will the binocs pull it down? I've only got a few minutes time!!! I've reviewed the charts several times... fifth mag star from gamma1 and 2, triangle of seventh mag stars, with three in the base, just north of this, 86 mag star next to and a 91, north of the nova position...
A minute after setting up the binocs, all my questions were answered.
| object | YYMMDD(UT) | mag | code |
|---|---|---|---|
| SGRNova1999 | 990428.480 | 87 | SQN.AAVSO |
| Observer's code: | SQN: Lance E. Shaw, California, USA 16X80 binocs Moon, very windy, extreme/industrial light pollution. AAVSO sequence. | ||
YES! I see it right off! Right on! It's there!
Uh oh, it's not as bright as the reports have said... Is this the nova? A quick check of the chart confirms this is indeed, Nova Sagittarii 1999... could this be a repeat of the behaviour of Nova Ophiuchi 1998? Rapid rise and fade?
This is the thrill to me, of 'right now' variable star observing... it may fade into oblivion, mere days from now... it's anybody's guess... just to get the chance to observe this brief flicker in such a bright star field... to be able to detect it, guess how bright it is...
Know that this event, may never happen again, in my lifetime... it's a little overwhelming.
The feeling leaves me at a loss of words.
Still enjoying the wonderful light of a single star this morning... The few... the proud... the deranged... the VSOer's!
(ps...the report above was written in the format preferred by the VSNET...if you have any questions, just email me or post them here. I'd be more than glad to reply. And in somewhat of a reply to an earlier email, this observation was made at 3:31 am, this morning. Not quite at optimum viewing... but alas, I did have time constraints!)