Amateurs snap 'HOLY GRAIL' supernova – right on our doorstep

[stovesy]

Here's a link which I found this morning on the M82 supernova.

 

What dawned on me from reading was the involvement of amateurs, and also the point that historical images of the area were used.

[Brantuk]

Fifty exploding stars per second is quite impressive really. There must be a huge wealth of night sky history now if you put all the amateur astronomy snaps together chronologically. Interesting link - good find Pete

[dawson]

Patrick always used to go on about the contributions amateurs could, and did make in astronomy.

Jd

[xanthic]

Amateurs contribute a surprising amount in this field. Professionals only have so much time and resource and are often concentrating in a particular area. Amateurs are observing and imaging all over the place, hence why comets and supernovae are often found by them first.

[Brantuk]

I feel sorry for professionals cos they usually have one big scope shared between hundreds of them - but us amateurs usually have several scopes each

[stovesy]

I wonder which of us Stargazians is gonna be the first to image it ?

[Brantuk]

Paul already did:

 

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/6968-m82-supernova/

[stovesy]

Nice

[andyboy1970]

I think a lot of pros never even see a scope just lots of data to analyse!

[dawson]

A link from the BAA bulletin about this:

 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps-faculty/maps-news-publication/maps1405

 

JD
 

[Guest foundaplanet]

I feel sorry for professionals cos they usually have one big scope shared between hundreds of them - but us amateurs usually have several scopes each

 

 

Very funny