Find T CrB Nova When It Fades
- Chuck Bueter
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 24 hours ago
What if the imminent nova T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is not as bright as Polaris, a second-magnitude star? Or what if you want to capture this phenomenon but a week of clouds have delayed viewing? If you take a night photo with your cell phone, how can you find the nova in the imaged starfield when T CrB has faded from maximum brightness?
Under clear and steady skies some cell phones pick up stars with magnitudes around mag=7 and mag=8. Comparing the imaged stars with an AAVSO star chart of T CrB you can approximate the site of the "new" star. AAVSO star charts and photometry tables for T CrB are at https://www.aavso.org/tcrb-charts-photometry-tablesx. For most of its lifespan T CrB is unseen at mag=10.
Dark skies reveal a multitude of stars with an iPhone in a Night mode with a 10s exposure.
 Zooming in will reveal stars fainter than the featured seven stars of the constellation outline.
Below the left curve of Corona Borealis is a triangle of stars containing the approximate site of recurring nova T CrB.
An AAVSO chart with black stars aligns with some faint white stars in the cell phone photo. The numbers indicate the stellar magnitude without the decimal point so the decimal point doesn't become confused with a star. For example, a star labeled 84 is mag=8.4.
Another perspective for finding the nova uses the stars depicting the Northern Crown. Extend the lines of the crown's base and the crown's left vertical side to form a right angle. The nova site is just above the bottom line, outboard of the left vertical side.
Let's do science together. Follow Corona Borealis and watch the universe evolve--a visible nova recur. As astronomers anticipate the celestial phenomenon they are refining the predictions based on new observations and credible ideas. What future do you predict based on science?
