Exoplanets
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!
Cosmic Alert Targets
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 the 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.
Highest Priority Cosmic Cataclysms 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 June 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:
- V729 Cyg - Observe every few days until 5 June: Deeplink - Northern Hemisphere. This is a massive eclipsing binary about which very little is known. These systems of O-type stars (the hottest, brightest, most massive stars) are important for constraining our picture of stellar evolution but few examples are known.
- V0646 Cas - Observe every few days until 12 May: Deeplink - Northern Hemisphere. Like V729 Cyg, this is another massive eclipsing binary of two O-type stars about which very little is known.
- T CrB - see priority target above.
After the priority targets listed above, the highest priority Cosmic Cataclysms 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.
