Bright New Nova In Delphinus — You can See it Tonight With Binoculars
Looking around for something new to see in your binoculars or telescope tonight? How about an object whose name literally means “new”. Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata discovered an apparent nova or “new star” in the constellation Delphinus the Dolphin just today, August 14. He used a small 7-inch (.18-m) reflecting telescope and CCD camera to nab it. Let’s hope its mouthful of a temporary designation, PNVJ20233073+2046041, is soon changed to Nova Delphini 2013!
Several hours later it was confirmed as a new object shining at magnitude 6.8 just under the naked eye limit. This is bright especially considering that nothing was visible at the location down to a dim 13th magnitude only a day before discovery. How bright it will get is hard to know yet, but variable star observer Patrick Schmeer of Germany got his eyes on it this evening and estimated the new object at magnitude 6.0. That not only puts it within easy reach of all binoculars but right at the naked eye limit for observers under dark skies. Wow! Since it appears to have been discovered on day one of the outburst, my hunch is that it will brighten even further.
http://www.universetoday.com/104103/bright-new-nova-in-delphinus-you-can-see-it-tonight-with-binoculars/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I would expect that the nova is several hundred light years away at a minimum....so we are observing very old news! That always boggles my mind...looking at the sky at night we see a patchwork of patterns that no longer exist in reality as we see them - some are moved, some are gone, some are brighter, etc....
Unless of course one is part of the man and dinosaurs had weenie roasts together! Then, I guess, the sky is just a dark cloth with little pin holes punched into it to let through the light....
