Capturing Star Explosion...

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 28^th 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 8^th 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 16^th 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.