Supernova 2024bch in Galaxy NGC 3206Supernova 2024bch in Galaxy NGC 3206
One of the personal projects I've been working on for a while is photographing supernovae. These are cosmic events in which a star explodes, blowing itself apart and scattering its contents into space. They're so bright they can be recorded from vast distances, but they only appear to us as faint stars. I inadvertently shot the same object a few months apart. On the left is the image I made in February when the supernova was so bright it outshone the bright central core of its host galaxy, NGC 3206, 62 million light-years away. At right is another image I made in June, forgetting I'd done so before. But I'm glad I was able to get a second image when I did because it shows how the supernova changed in a relatively short time, becoming much fainter and redder.

Each image is a composite of 12 5-minute exposures (1 hour total).
GSO 8" f/8 RC OTA, Losmandy Astronomical GM811G mount
ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled color CMOS camera
ZWO EAF autofocuser
auto-guided, Askar off-axis guider, ZWO ASI174MM Mini guide camera
ZWO ASIAir Plus controller
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop

#astrophotography, #deepsky, #supernova

One of the personal projects I've been working on for a while is photographing supernovae*. These are cosmic events in which a star explodes, blowing itself apart and scattering its contents into space. They're so bright they can be recorded from vast distances, but appear to us only as faint stars. I inadvertently shot the same object a few months apart. On the left is the image I made in February when the supernova was so bright it outshone the bright central core of its host galaxy, NGC 3206, 62 million light-years away. At right is another image I made in June, forgetting I'd done so before. But I'm glad I was able to get a second image when I did because it shows how the supernova changed in a relatively short time, becoming much fainter and redder.

Each image is a composite of 12 5-minute exposures (1 hour total).
GSO 8" f/8 RC OTA, Losmandy Astronomical GM811G mount
ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled color CMOS camera
ZWO EAF autofocuser
auto-guided, Askar off-axis guider, ZWO ASI174MM Mini guide camera
ZWO ASIAir Plus controller
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop

*Supernovae is the plural form of supernova, as usually used by astronomers, though some people use "supernovas" as more colloquial.