August 9, 2009: Nova in Sagittarius - Nova Sgr 2009 No. 3 or VSX J180707.6-334633

Mark Johnston

This nova is easily seen this early Aug 9, 2009 at 12:20am Pacific time with my Orion ST120 f/5 scope using 9mm for 67x. This was seen in my West San Jose Backyard just now where the streetlights are the sodium lights. Seeing is soft with the magnitude limit in this scope right around 10.5 range at the time of the observation.

It is almost nice that the moon is up as it blocks out the blanket of stars that may make this a more difficult find on a very dark night.

At this time I estimate it at about mag 7.9 or even a bit brighter per one of the stars that is not far from the area. It appears brighter than the nearest star of that sort of magnitude which is a mag 8.5 star about 25' ENE. Several far dimmer mag 10 stars that are near it allow confirmation of the position.

Mark