By luck I made a 30 minute image of M78 on the Sunday night of DSC. My copy of "The Astronomer" arrived while we were away and on the front was an image of the newly discovered McNeil's object. I processed the image and was very pleased to see that it had been recorded.
(http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul_whitmarsh/Astronomy/Images/MX916/February_22_2004/M78_Arrowed.png)
300mm f2.8 lens operating at f. MX916 with Lumicron Hydrogen Alpha filter
Anouncement made in IAUC 8284
A report was received from J. W. McNeil, Paducah, KY, of the appearance of a new nebula in a dense region of the Lynds 1630 cloud in Orion, and apparently associated with IRAS 05436-0007, on his unfiltered CCD images taken with a 7.6-cm refractor on Jan. 23 UT. The object, which is located at R.A. = 5h46m14s, Decl. = -0o05'.8 (equinox 2000.0), was then of total mag about 15-16 (with his CCD camera's sensitivity peaking at 575 nm), but it is not present on seven Digitized Sky Survey images from 1951 to 1991. B. Reipurth, University of Hawaii (UH), confirms that a faint optical counterpart to IRAS 05436-0007 has gone into outburst and has produced a large reflection nebulosity, based on preliminary examination of red broadband CCD images obtained with K. Meech at the UH 2.2-m telescope on Jan. 31. Reipurth adds that this is a very rare event, apparently similar to that involving IRAS 05380-0728 (cf. Reipurth and Bally 1986, Nature 320, 336). The outburst may be an EX-Lup-type or FU-Ori-type eruption, driven by a sudden increase of accretion through a circumstellar disk, and thus in urgent need of observation (see Herbig 1977, Ap.J. 217, 693; Lehmann et al. 1995, A.Ap. 300, L9; Hartmann and Kenyon 1996, ARAA 34, 207). Reipurth also notes that HH 22 is in the line-of-sight of this new nebula but is not physically involved with the nebula
(Eisloeffel and Mundt 1997, A.J. 114, 280).
Great! Did you see the BAA circular asking for observations of the object to be sent in?
No I missed that, Though I have sent in the observation to the BAA Deep Sky Section and TA.
Did it give any details of who to send the observation to?
Stewart Moore, the Deep Sky Section director. I've put his email address in a private message.
[ This Message was edited by: Rick on 2004-02-26 11:00 ]
Cheers Rick, I sent my report to Nick Hewit, I'll send another off to Stewart
Hi Paul,
That's a tremendous achievement! Just think you are one of the few/ first people on the planet to image this - Wow :smile: Aside from that it's a great image - there are just so many stars in it. What about other images from the weekend? Can't wait to see the posts.
Cheers, John.
Paul, send it to astronomy now as well, I'm sure you will get £25 for this one.
Thats a good Idea I have to recover the cost of the lenses some how :wink:
Send them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!