Well, the night of the 19th. Technically early morning on the 20th.
A couple of newly minted supernovae at the moment that should be visible. The only problem is that the host galaxies, in this case,
That also meant that it was going to be terribly cold out, forecast to be hovering around 10° F. That coupled with the light but stiff breeze that was pushing the air around, I was expecting some decent frigidity.
About 2200 hrs. I commenced my setting up. I brought out the AD12 dobsonian and set it up on my usual spot in the backyard. I also selected for eyepieces the
Unfortunately, my two targets for the night would not be collectively above 30° in altitude until 0200 hrs. so I had some time to kill.
Ah, what the heck. Even though astrophotography literally pisses me off, I thought I might as well see if I can grab a snap or two of these SNe while I was trying to see them visually.
I pulled out the AVX and got that plunked down in my polar alignment divots. Back insides, I pulled the SV102T out of its case, added extension tubes and the ASI294MC Pro, saddled the guide scope and ASI120MM-S, then toted that arrangement out to the AVX. Once balanced, I returned inside for my power source and bag o’ cabling. Got all that strung up like a Christmas tree. Brought out the “yard laptop” and connected that. Polar Alignment was done and focus achieved.
Now I had three and a half hours to kill. Back inside to study some imagery on the positions of the SNe in relation to their host galaxies.
It was a bit of a struggle waiting it out but 0200 hrs. finally arrived. I suited up in my insulated coveralls, hat, and gloves and ventured forth. Nice and quiet out. I half expected the sky to be cloudy but it uncharacteristically remained clear. Huh.
Over at the AVX, I set up a sequence of 60-second exposures on
Studying my star chart, I figured the best spot to dive in to be naked-eye star δ Virginis, aka Auva. I leaned over to sight the star in my
I went to the shed and popped open the accessory case and found no
I studied the galaxy for a bit. The view seemed a bit choked off and dim. It has been a while since I’ve gone galaxy hunting and I was likely not quite as dark adapted as I needed to be. And I’m sure the transparency could have been better. I have observed this particular galaxy before about four and a half years ago while pursuing the Herschel 400 list.
I also had an image of the supernova’s (SN2020ue) placement relative to the galaxy pulled up on my iPhone. And I trashed my dark adaptation looking at that. Dang it. I dimmed my phone all the way down and henceforth kept my observing eye closed and studied the image with my other eye.
Back to the scope, I swapped out the 18mm for the 11mm and dove back in. I kept noticing a brighter point source of light just eastward of the core but dismissed it as a foreground star. I was unable to pick up some of the smaller stars near the SN’s position in the image on my phone. I swapped out for the BCO 10mm and with this eyepiece, I was getting intermittent flashes of a couple of these dimmer stars.
I worked at it for about a half-hour. The breeze was really knifing the cold air into me. Getting chilled and frustrated, I decided to go inside for a warmup.
Once inside, I got on the computer and studied some images online. Well, darn. That brighter point source I was plainly seeing appears to be the supernova!
Back outside, I re-acquired my target and examined my point source again. Yep, that’d be the supernova. Cool. That marks my third one observed.
Satisfied with that, I went over to the yard laptop to check on my capture sequence (observing eye closed). 21 frames in the can and working on the 22nd. Good enough. I aborted my sequence and set up another one for M100, the host of SN2020oi. I kicked that off and moved back over to the
To get to M100, I sighted β Leonis (Denebola) in the
I was expecting a more in-your-face galaxy compared to
I swapped eyepieces for the 11mm. The cold was really getting to me at this point and making it rather difficult to get in there and study/concentrate on the galaxy. I gave it my best shot and sat on it for another twenty minutes. I couldn’t really get the core of the galaxy to stand out appreciably. Since the SN was about 4” from the core, I was not really able to discern either core or SN. After a bit more time, I decided enough was enough as I was almost painfully cold.
Checking on the capture sequence, I was about 20 frames in, so I also called that good enough and shut things down. I really need to capture some dark frames but no way was I gonna wait around in the cold for another fifteen minutes while that was happening. I packed up my toys and went back inside.
So that was my night. One hit and one miss.
Luckily, I had some fairly recent 60-second dark frames already stored so it was an easy matter of running off some new flats and dark flats to process my two images from the warmth of the house. Got those all stacked and cranked through the
Here is the image of
And here is the image of M100 with the position of SN2020oi marked (I think). It is so close to the core that even in my not-especially-well-focused image it is hard to discern:
So that was my frigid early morning adventure.
That’s all I’ve got. Peace and clear skies, friends!
Not! 
Nice work Bryan! The way you were pushing that 12” around reminded me of the old visual days! Excellent report my friend!