Exoplanets
IF and ONLY IF you were alerted that nova T CrB is erupting now, observe it immediately and as often as possible with this deeplink.
(Otherwise, scroll down for normal observing instructions.)
Pick Your Cosmic Cataclysm from the Latest Alerts!
Cataclysmic events are happening every night somewhere in the observable Universe. Our goal is to catch them.
Be the first to observe a transient event like a supernova, gamma-ray burst, or maybe a phenomenon as yet unknown to humanity. These cosmic happenings are unpredictable and short-lived, so we need to observe them as soon as they appear.
The table below lists the latest targets to appear: Pick your favorite(s) and start observing!
If you are new to this, please read the Tutorial first.
When you are done observing, click here to report your observation with a short form.
Go get 'em!
Highest Priority Cosmic Cataclysm Targets
- T CrB - Observe nightly! Deeplink - Visible from both hemispheres. T CrB is a long-term recurrent nova target that we are watching for an upcoming eruption expected anytime from now to September 2024. We want to catch it the moment it erupts and starts to brighten. Observing details in table below.
Variable Star Targets with AAVSO
The Unistellar Network is collaborating with AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) to observe variable stars in the Milky Way. The active targets are:
- T CrB - see "high priority" target above.
- S Vul - Observe once per night until 10 October: Deeplink - Both Hemispheres. Until this year, this was the longest period classical Cepheid variable known (a pulsating star). But measurements suggest the period of this system has increased from 67.5 to 69 days. This is a huge change in period that we need to verify by tracking its brightness changes during the next two 69-day cycles.
- IGR J00370+6122 - Observe multiple times per night until 1 September: Deeplink - Northern Hemisphere. This mouthful of a target is a High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB): two large stars orbiting each other and producing unusually high amounts of X-ray light. This HMXB has a well established orbital period from X-rays; however, its period in optical wavelengths is unclear. Some have (erroneously) quoted 4.9 days but data is sparse. We will observe this object regularly to determine whether this orbital periodicity is in fact present in optical light.
- CV Ser - Observe multiple times per night until 1 September: Deeplink - Both Hemispheres. CV Ser is an exotic Wolf-Rayet eclipsing binary star 6,700 light-years away that is a bit of an oddball. Sometimes it has large 0.5-magnitude dips that happen randomly. It also has small (<0.05 Mag) atmospheric eclipses where the (larger) companion star is eclipsed by the massive amount of stellar wind material being pushed off the surface of the Wolf-Rayet star. NASA's TESS space telescope will be observing this object in July/August and we hope to support this by gaining color observations which can help tell us significantly more information.
The V729 Cyg and V0646 Cas observing campaigns are complete. Thank you!
Cosmic Alert Targets
After the priority targets listed above, the highest priority Cosmic Cataclysm targets are at the top of the table (with the most recent "Discovered" date). But we still want to collect observations for all targets in this table.
Visibility note: If your observing location's latitude is within +/- 70 degrees of the target's "Dec" value (its first number), then the target is likely visible to you. The closer your latitude is to the Dec, the higher in the sky the target will rise for you. Maps are being developed to make determining visibility easier.
If you use a deeplink or RA & Dec coordinates from the table below and have a level tripod, your telescope should be on target. There is no requirement to compare your field of view with a finder image.
