Revisiting Nova Del 2013 on August 24, 2013 at 0715 UTC

I took some more photos of Nova Delphini 2013 this morning at 3:15am Indiana time, which I believe is 7:15am universal time. In my single frames, N Del 2013 appears slightly smaller than the nearby 5.7 reference star, so it must be 5.8 magnitude (whereas before it appeared slightly larger than the 5.7 reference star). 

48 subs, 62 darks, 45 bias, each at 300mm, 1.3 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600

It's hard to tell with the stacked image because the stars are all kinda smudged (they're kinda smudged on the single frames too for that matter). Here is a side by side comparison of my two observations compared to the nearby 5.7 magnitude star. To me it looks like N Del 2013 is slightly brighter on the 22nd and slightly dimmer on the 24th.

Side-by-side comparison of N Del 2013 for two observations

This was really fun to make! Comparing my photo of N Del 2013 to Stellarium
Nova! It's a new (-ly visible) star!

Nova Delphini 2013 (N Del 2013) August 21, 2013

In spite of the nearly full moon, I was able to spot Nova Delphini 2013 with my Canon Rebel XT and 300mm lens. The new nova (redundant?) isn't blowing apart like a supernova, but stealing enough gas from its neighbor to temporarily flare up much brighter than normal (10,000x brighter in a matter of days). The star itself is a white dwarf normally too faint to see with even some pretty hefty equipment (approximately +17 magnitude). I took a series of images and stacked them for a total exposure time of about 1 minute.

Stack of 79 light frames 1.3 sec each, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600 (30 dark, 20 bias)

Judging by the known magnitude of nearby stars, I'd estimate it at about +5.6 (but then again I've never estimated the magnitude of a nova before).

I used a chart from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) to identify the magnitudes of several other stars in my image, then tried to place N Del 2013 on a spectrum between them. This process is described in more detail here.

As it so happens, my guess of 5.6 plots perfectly on the AAVSO light curve for N Del 2013. Indiana time is 4 hours behind UTC, and I took my photos at 10:30pm on August 21 - so that puts me smack dab in the middle of the green dots just after midnight UTC on August 22.

Light curve for N Del 2013, data from www.aavso.org
My observation (red circle) added in Photoshop

A wider shot of Nova Delphini 2013 showing location relative to Delphinus
21 subs, 19 darks each at 75mm, f/4.5, 4 sec, ISO 1600

Check out the light pollution from the moon in this last image! On my camera's LCD screen I could barely make out Delphinus, but I'm glad it showed up in my image.