20130815

nova delphini 2013!

"I'll tell you a little later on . . . how Delphinus for yourselves if you're under clear skies," he said!



Discovered (by Koichi Itagaki) yesterday; from the SLOOH Telescopes in the Canary Islands. (via Ma -- thanks, Ma!)

It is early yet here near the nation's capital, and the nova is just approaching naked eye visibility, but I cannot see anything in the appropriate area of the sky (determined via StarWalk) except the slightest glimmer of what must be Altair, off to the side, through the haze.

Bob Berman, the narrator of the above video (who also touts an app), says tomorrow the show will feature the immanent flipping of the magnetic poles of the Sun, somewhat out of the its appropriate chronology: "the Sun has been weird, lately." I think he also mentioned some distant supernova also currently being observed.

Exciting times, indeed, in the ol' Hubble Volume!