Sky is full of Surprises!!!!
That’s what I experience unexpectedly two days back. Day
before yesterday sky in Sirohi became clear suddenly with not a single trace of
cloud. I thought it is good opportunity to take some photograph of sky. Month
of August shows mix constellations of summer and winter nights. This time we
can see center of our milky way in Sagittarius constellation, near to
Sagittarius Scorpio constellation makes stunning appearance. These two
constellations are enough to fall in love with night sky. I took some
photographs of these two constellations.
Scorpio constellation
Bright Venus
Then I took some pictures of Venus in west. Now days Venus is
shining brightly in West sky after sunset. And then I turned my camera above
head and took picture of Lyrae, Aquilla and Cygnus. These are summer time
constellations. Near to these brighter constellations you can find a small, not
much brighter but very beautiful constellation Delphinus a dolphin. This is one
of my favorite constellations. And I never miss chance to capture it in my
camera. After spending time to observe and capture pictures of sky I went back
to my work.
Main stars of Lyrae, Cygnus
and Aquilla are Vega, Deneb and Altair respectively. These stars form a
triangle in sky known as Summer Triangle
Delphinus a dolphin is very
beautiful constellation of sky
In late night I was checking my mail. I got few mail from my
astronomer friends that few days back one star was exploded in Delphinus
constellation and become brighter enough to see with naked eye. But it was few
days back. Then suddenly think of that I have taken photographs of this region
too. There might be possibility of getting this exploded star in my pictures.
But when such explosion happens in space then suddenly stars
brightness increases millions times than its actual brightness and hence we can
see a new star in sky where it was not visible previously. Yes, I said we
observe new star in sky because although it’s an explosion but this explosion
is happening thousands or sometimes millions or billions light-years away from
us. So, we can observe only flash of light which appear suddenly in sky and
then after few time it disappear again. Sometime these new stars remain for
months and sometimes for few hours.
So, I was bit doubtful to find it in my photographs. Then I
trace its reports of everyday brightness after its appearance from various
astronomers. I found this new star was showing steady decline in brightness. On
28th August its brightness was 6.5. And it was near to visibility of
my camera. Then I found some Photographs of other astronomers plus maps showing
accurate position of new star and some 8th magnitude star charts. I
started comparing my photos with these maps.
I was excited to find out this new star in my photographs.
But, due to my excitement I was finding every star pattern in map and photo
same. Oh!!! I can’t find out in this way, I thought. I calm down myself and
then again start search in photo. After spending three hour I doubt on one
object in my picture that this might be new star. Okay!! Let’s check it. After
spending half hour I found ‘no, it’s not the new star’. Actually the position
of map and photo was quit tilted which confused me. I correct this position
with other maps. I also observe some astronomers photos. And after one and half
hour of checking and rechecking I found that new star. But I decided to recheck
my photos from other astronomers. I sent my photographs to my friend
astronomers to check and confirm it. Then I went to sleep.
Next evening I got mail from my friends. They said the object
which I was spotted was exactly on the position where other astronomers
reported. And hence it’s a Nova!!! a new star.
This nova was sighted first by Japani astronomer Koichi
Itagaki on 16th August 2013. Explosions of stars are common sights
in space. But exploding up to visible brightness is rare case. Many times I
tried to observe such events in past but failed. This time I got this
opportunity totally surprisingly in rainy season.
But it’s not over. If weather permits, I need to observe and
capture it every day to observe its decreasing brightness.
Here, I am giving sequence of photographs. This is only one photo.I have edited and zoomed in to show position of nova.
