Bright new supernova in M95

[Darren Drake]

And it's right next to Mars

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/staranalyser/message/2456

[Jerry Morris]

Thanks for the heads up, Darren, will take a look as soon as this west Texas wind and clouds clear out.

[Uwe Glahn]

Darren, I had a quick look yesterday with 14,5" and the SN is VERY bright.
Around 2' SW and of M 95 and approx between 12,5mag and 13mag - a little bit fainter than GSC 84949 (6' E, 12,4mag). I would say "a finder - object" :)

[Marko]

Thanks for the heads up on this one. First I heard of it from Darren's post here on DSF.

M95 supernova at 10pm PDT tonight, 3-22-2012, was quite obvious in a 12" f/5 dob just south of the core of M95 by around 2.4' or almost the same spacing and the mag 9.9 and mag 11.7 stars just west of M95 by
1/3fov [about 7'].

Looking around for a similar mag star I decided that just east of the
mag 11 star that is 1/2fov [11'] NW of the core of M95 [GSC 849:167]
was a much dimmer star going by GSC849:195 that was very close in mag to
the supernova judged using a 5mm Nagler (300x). That puts the supernova near mag 13.3 at 10pm PDT.

The night did not support 300x but it was easier to judge the mag with the 300x.
I judged the mag 12.6 star 1/2 fov WNW of M95 to be a touch brighter [GSC 849:119].
The sky was not very dark [did not have SQM meter] but NELM was just a bit better
than 5.4. With the same 7mm eyepiece used for the M95 observation my
galaxy limiting mag was around Ngc4458 which is around mag 12 galaxy
but not stellar in my view tonight and was a little more in San Jose
glow so only approximate judgement.

[Adrian R.]

M95 and its spiral arms were beautiful last night! But was even more amazing was its S/N that propagated light nearly as bright as all of the galaxy's stars combined. Very obvious...

[Jerry Morris]

My wife, Kathie, and I also enjoyed the S/N in M95 Saturday evening. It was a beautiful display of this incredible event, as was it's host galaxy! We each spent considerable time at the eye piece, appreciating every photon of this unbelievably intense energy occurrence. We marveled at the possibility that we might see one of these from our own galaxy one day. The evening was a good one, with good transparency and above average seeing at times. It made us realize, once again, what an enjoyable past time it is to look up at the night sky!

[Marko]

A re-visit of the M95 supernova last night in a 12" f/5 dob led me to judge the magnitude to be about mag 13.3. The star I felt it matched fairly well is NE of the core by 10' and just east of 'Tiny Arcturus' or GSC 849:195 in a tiny Bootes asterism of similar size to M95 but centered 8' or so NE with 'Tiny Arcturus' pointing due N.

The night before I viewed the M101 SN from last year and it is now very dim now with perhaps only at mag 14.6 or even dimmer. This was judged from GSC 3852:334 that is about 3' East of the SN.

[Steve Gottlieb]

You headed south, Marko, and I headed north to Lake Sonoma. But I happened to take a look in a similar aperture (Carter Scholz's 12.5") and mag 13.3 sound just about right. I was pleased it was still holding up pretty well.