Supernova snap
Even in these trying times astronomy is still a great spirit lifter. I have been a regular attendee of Chesterfield Astronomical Society for the past 10 years but, of course, the current lockdown restrictions prevent us going to the Observatory. The fact that you can still enjoy astronomy from a back garden anywhere is a real bonus. I have my own telescopes but even if you haven’t you can still enjoy the beauty of the night sky. Anyone can take a deckchair outside or even a blanket and just look up; I often still just go out and look up at the night sky.
If you do have a telescope or even binoculars, it opens up the sky to some fascinating objects. After the news of a supernova (SN 2020jfo) in the Virgo Cluster (M61) in mid-May I decided to a try and image it with my Canon EOS 1100D DSLR camera, 6-inch Newtonian and EQ5 mount. I captured 12 frames, stacked them in DeepSkyStacker and processed the image further in GIMP, and am quite pleased with the result. I feel I’m still a novice to this, but it just goes to show what can be achieved from a fairly light-polluted back garden.
Sue Silver, Sheffield
Well done Sue, a fantastic record of this event, which observations suggest is a Type II supernova
– the final act of a supergiant star whose core collapsed after running out of nuclear fuel. – Ed.