Well done Dave,and good interview with Ray Darcy nice one mate

regards Darren:)

Thanks all for the kind words. Hopefully I'll get to have a chat with some of you down in Birr on Sat and thank you personally.

It's getting a bit mad. I've a stack more radio interviews to do today. Getting a little surreal.

Congratulations Dave and Carol.

It's a remarkable achievement and a testament to your passion and dedication to astronomy.

Your outreach activities and achievements have made and will no doubt continue to make an indelible mark on Irish astronomy.

Anthony

Nice one Dave! Just heard it on Ray Darcy this morning. Great interview.
Trevor

Great news Dave, you've done again

Hi Dave,

Don't know you personally but delighted for you.

As someone who has only begun to scratch the surface of astronomy it is a real inspiration to keep exploring further and learn more.

Great work!!

Damien

eansbro wrote:

Hi Dave Mc,
This was before CCD cameras. I remember I took about 80 hours of exposures using photo film.

It's ironical that when the IFAS AOP was initiated 3 or 4 years ago, there was a lot of enthusium as team work, but it is difficult to coordinate a team program. I know in the UK that there SN searches are done by individual observers, whereby in the US you have the Puckett team that analyse the comparison images in teams. The idea of IFAS AOP was a similar model to the Puckett approach. I still believe this approach will work with an Irish team.

I really hope that Dave's SN discovery will be an inspiration to others on the IFAS board to try this out.

Eamonn A

That was some achievement Eamonn - it goes to show just how far technology has progressed and (potentially) how much easier it has become to do real research at an amateur level.

As regards the AOP - I think the biggest issues are:

1. There is no funding for equipment or infrastructure to allow team collaborations
2. Most amateurs have day-jobs and can either do data colletion or data analysis - not both
3. We are weather challenged...

But I'd hope that recent years have proved the concept that amateurs can and do play a major role in the gathering of data - the professionals recognise this and indeed value it highly.

For example, on the MPC, you see the big surveys making discoveries by the bucket load (with their bucket loads of funding and full-time positions) - but is is mostly amateurs who do the follow-up. Without Peter Birtwhistle, Kieran Rooney, Dave Grennan, Carl O'Beirnes and many others, these objects would be lost. Without Puckett, Grennan and Boles, the professional observatories would have a hard time discovering SN - the amateurs do it and the pros get to do all the fancy science, write a paper and then get more funding. I'm not complaining - I think its a great symbiotic relationship. But there should be some pay-back at some point. I think the day will come - but not any time soon methinks.

All we can hope to do is our best - either as individuals, teams or both. I would hope that IFAS could assist in that process in the future. And I'd certainly hope that Dave's monumental discovery will galavanise other amateurs to get involved - perhaps this will be the "light the blue touch paper and stand back" moment.

We'll let this settle down, let Dave enjoy his deserved credit and then perhaps we can start up an Irish SN Search programme. Now *that* would be cool and something I would support fully.

Dave

p.s. - just saw the 6-1 news - loved the backround music I also bought the Indo today - the front page photo is classic - Dave with the telescope and a full washing line (not Dave's) in the backround - thought a saw a humungous pair of big knickers on it (also not Dave's...)

Can i also pass on best wishes and Congrats to Dave from myself and everyone at Galway Astronomy Club on your recent amazing discovery.

Ronan Newman

hickeydp wrote:

As someone who has only begun to scratch the surface of astronomy it is a real inspiration to keep exploring further and learn more.

Damien, Were all only scratching the surface and anyone who pretends otherwise is kidding themselves. However I know what you mean. I was there too. If this discovery means anything at all it's that amateurs CAN do this sort of valuable astronomy. So keep at it Damien, persevere and when you run into the wall remember that there are those of us just a little further down the road here to help. You won't find a more helpful bunch of lads and lassies than here.

To everyone else thanks again. Its been on very strange day today. I never expected this to attract so much media attention. It goes to show that people ARE interested in what we do.

Hopefully see some of you in birr on saturday.

Dave.

Hi Dave


Many congrats on your fantastic discovery. Well Done


Trevor

Congrats Dave, your only encouraging us all to get back into the garden more often!

I am using your pic to try and convince my lovely wife to let me finally covert the shed!

Redmond

My sincerest congrats to Dave as well for his fateful and historic discovery. It is honours well-justified and it could not have happened to someone more worthy!

What great "renumeration" for such dedicated and inspiring work! Gotta confess that Dave's success has me thinking of dedicating time as well to such an endeavour, for we have never had any such discovery (supernova or asteroid) from Greece.

Anthony.

Damien, Were all only scratching the surface and anyone who pretends otherwise is kidding themselves. However I know what you mean. I was there too. If this discovery means anything at all it's that amateurs CAN do this sort of valuable astronomy. So keep at it Damien, persevere and when you run into the wall remember that there are those of us just a little further down the road here to help. You won't find a more helpful bunch of lads and lassies than here.

+1 Yes Dave, very True, I myself have been doing a lot of variable star observing and nova hunting for years now, and still no sucess, but hey keep observing, maybe it will come true for you all too some night

Keith..

hi dave! its amazing how in this temperate climate we have, we can do the nearly impossible! but you made it even more possible AGAIN! well done and congrads!!!!

James.

Congratulations on your amazing discovery!! Truly breathtaking stuff!

congrats dave, well done a great pay off for all your hard work .

Hi All,

I managed to do some measurements on supernova 2010 IK imaged with a C14 and ATIK 4000 CCD.And it appears to have brightened to around 17.7. Results below

COD J09
OBS C. O'Beirnes
MEA C. O'Beirnes
TEL 0.36-m Schmidt Cassegrain + CCD
ACK MPCReport file updated 2010.10.13 15:19:01
NET USNO-B1.0

2010 IK C2010 10 10.86551 00 12 07.46 +41 45 24.5 17.7 R .

You were using an R filter? Must've brightened lot then. I took images the other night which I must process...

dmcdona wrote:

You were using an R filter? Must've brightened lot then. I took images the other night which I must process...

Hi Dave,

I didn't use any filters for this measurement.

Carl.

carlobeirnes wrote:

I didn't use any filters for this measurement.

I saw the R at the end of the one-liner and thought that's what you'd done... Sorry.

I didn't use any filters for this measurement.

Take the R out of your MPC observations Carl since some people will use the R data and get skewed results. I used to put C for no filter but now you just leave out the letter for no filter.

If you use fitsblink to check residuals leave in the filter letter otherwise it does not work.

phoenix wrote:

I didn't use any filters for this measurement.

Take the R out of your MPC observations Carl since some people will use the R data and get skewed results. I used to put C for no filter but now you just leave out the letter for no filter.

If you use fitsblink to check residuals leave in the filter letter otherwise it does not work.

Kieran,

Be careful, You cannot use C any more it has been defunct for a couple of months now. There is no specific code for unfiltered or clear filters any more. I note that all the regular observers are now using R (and this is what is being recommended on MPML) when unfiltered or clear filter magnitudes are being reported. I am thinking of getting a V filter as V is still valid, but should not be used for unfiltered estimates.

Dave.

I forgot to add the reason why the 'C' filter was removed. It is a common misconception that the filter code refers to the filter you used for the observation. It does not. It refers to the bandpass of the filter used for the reference star catalog used for the magnitude estimate. Since there are no catalogs which use a C filter it was removed. If you send in observations with C they will be rejected.

Dave.

Dave as my post said:

I used to put C for no filter but now you just leave out the letter for no filter.

Glad your skyward observational skills are better than your reading skills.

phoenix wrote:

Glad your skyward observational skills are better than your reading skills.

Actually Kieran, I did read your post. If you leave out the reference filter for your magnitude estimate, then it is not used in the calculation of the H and G parameters even though it will appear in the observations. This is of course the main reason you would submit a mag estimate. Are you on the MPML? It's all on there.