Saturday, March 24, 2012

Supernova in Messier 95

Messier 95 is a barred spiral galaxy 38 million light years away in the constellation Leo. A supernova was discovered in the galaxy's outskirts on March 16, 2012. Despite its great distance, astronomers may have found the pre-nova star in a Hubble image that was made a few years ago. Here is an image of M95 that I made early in the morning on March 24, 2012:

Messier 95 with Supernova 2012aw; ST80 on Vixen SP; 12x120
Messier 95 is a member of the Messier 96 Group of galaxies. This group also includes galaxies Messier 105, NGC 3373 and NGC 3384.
Messier 96 Group in Leo; ST80 on Vixen SP; 12x120
With labels:


My astronomy pal, Polaris B, made a very nice image of M95: M95 & SN 2012aw

4 comments:

  1. Oh, you have the cool wide-field view! That's awesome! We don't have nearly enough images around at the range where you can see galaxies and how they relate to each other in the sky. And you got the supernova in the widefield shot. How cool is that? Very nice, Rory! So is that with the DSI?

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  2. Oh, and thanks for the reference!

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  3. This was taken with my DSLR on the Orion Short Tube 80. The actual image is much larger, but past a certain point the coma gets pretty bad. I wish that I could get more detail on those tiny little galaxies, but I think more aperture is required.

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  4. Great shots, Rory! Well done for getting the supernova.

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