[Friends_of_SSASTROS] The Due Date is Almost Upon Us...

[Alden Wells]

Still we wait…… I think it will be worth it. 

A.W. 


Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 8, 2024, at 12:03 PM, Mike McCabe <cartech2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> ...and yet there's been no sign that what we're expecting will come to fruition.
> 
> I speak of the impending nova T CrB of course, and at the field the other night a question came up about its visibility, specifically if we would be losing it to the Sun and thus possibly not getting to witness the spectacle. The answer is a sound "no", so even if the birth comes way later than the forecasts had it happening, we should still be able to see this baby being born. T Crb spends time in the dark sky every day, year round. Here's what to look for;
> 
> <1725807912104blob.jpg>
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> <1725807932038blob.jpg>
> 
> From now until early November you'll need to be looking in the evening and have a sorta low western horizon to work with. Nothing insane like some of the targets we often seek shortly after sunset and just a few degrees above the horizon, but depending on the conditions where you live you might have to move around a bit to have access to it.
> 
> <1725808107372blob.jpg>
> 
> By mid-November an interesting thing happens with this see-a-nova quest; for a brief period you'll have your choice of either morning or evening to check out the Blaze Star. So, whatever floats your boat. If you're a morning person, rejoice. If you're an evening person, then you'd best get started on changing your ways.
> 
> <1725808286864blob.jpg>
> 
> By mid-December it's all about the mornings, so all the evening folks are gonna have to somehow compel their bodies to rise and shine should the system wait until then to pop off.
> 
> Here's why the system never goes away completely like lots of other objects in the sky do;
> 
> <1725808469367blob.jpg>
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> <1725808482660blob.jpg>
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> <1725808501973blob.jpg>
> 
> As one of my coworkers was fond of saying, "it's all about the angle of the dangle", or in this case the angle of our perspective on the cosmic dome. The three images above show the location of T CrB (with 'supernova' applied for dramatic effect) relative to the Sun on the date of November 15th. Both the Sun and T CrB are riding around on the cosmic dome on that date very near to the 16hr line of right ascension, so you'd expect T CrB to be drowned out by the Sun. 
> 
> But a funny thing happens when you're riding on a globe and the objects you're looking are in different positions on what appears to us as a dome. The Sun is riding at a declination of -18° on that date (this position in in flux and constantly changing), T CrB is always at the declination of about +26°, and we're viewing the whole scene from a latitude of about +42° on earth (which means that if you look exactly straight up, you'll be staring at +42° on the cosmic dome too). This also means that from our perspective the Sun takes a much shorter line from horizon to horizon than does the target of our desire on the given date, thus leaving T Crb exposed to us in darkness on both ends of the day.
> 
> As the Sun appears to progress eastward across the stars and takes up residence in the higher hours of right ascension, thus getting further eastward of the 16hr line, T CrB will rise earlier and earlier as the year closes and the new year begins. The morning apparitions for this system are not very long-lived, with early March being the timeframe when an observer can step out around a very comfy 9pm and view it in full darkness and well above the eastern horizon.
> 
> Bottom line; we should be able to witness the birth of a T CrB nova no matter when it happens, save for it coinciding with a week of cloudy skies. Let's hope that's not the case.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Mike M.
> <1725807912104blob.jpg>
> <1725807932038blob.jpg>
> <1725808107372blob.jpg>
> <1725808286864blob.jpg>
> <1725808469367blob.jpg>
> <1725808482660blob.jpg>
> <1725808501973blob.jpg>
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