UK NOVA/SUPERNOVA PATROL

[Whitters]

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BAA electronic circular No. 00114            http://www.britastro.org/
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UK NOVA/SUPERNOVA PATROL
With the announcement on The Astronomer E-Circular 1904 of the discovery
on August 7 of Supernova 2003gw in the galaxy UGC 3252 by Mark
Armstrong, the number of nova and supernova discoveries by members of
the UK Nova/Supernova Patrol reached 100. We offer sincere
congratulations to everyone both here and abroad who have contributed to
this success.

The nova patrol was started in October of 1976 by the late John
Hosty and myself after much encouragement from the late George
Alcock who had, himself, achieved great success with visual nova
searches. The first discovery was made on 1977 January 7 when John
Hosty found Nova Sagittae 1977 now designated as HS Sagittae.

A supernova patrol had also been started in September 1978
coordinated by Nigel Henbest and run as a joint venture by the
British Astronomical Association and The Astronomer. This was later
merged with the nova patrol to form the present UK Nova/Supernova
Patrol which was extended to all observers both in the UK and
overseas and run as a collaboration between TA and the BAA.

With the absence of bright supernovae in our own Galaxy (!),
attention now centred on searches in other galaxies. On 1991 April
15, Mirko Villi and Giancarlo Cortini found the first patrol
supernova visually in NGC 4527, later designated Supernova 1991T.

An historic moment occurred on 1996 October 23 when Mark Armstrong
became the first UK-based patrol member to find a supernova (SN
1996bo in NGC 673). Indeed no confirmed supernova by UK-based
observers professional or amateur had ever been made previously!

Even then we never expected that seven years later discoveries of
novae and supernovae by patrol members would have passed 100. We
offer congratulations to:

John Hosty, Robert McNaught, Dave McAdam and Mike Collins (novae)

Mirko Villi, Giancarlo Cortini, Stefano Pesci, P. Mazza, Mark
Armstrong, Tom Boles, Stephen Laurie, Steven Foulkes and Ron Arbour
(supernovae).

We are now looking forward to another imminent landmark, the
discovery of the 100th supernova by UK-based observers!

Guy M Hurst
Co-ordinator, UK Nova/Supernova Patrol
BAA President

[Rick]

BAA electronic circular No. 00115            http://www.britastro.org/

Today is an historic moment for British amateur astronomy with the announcement by staff at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams in USA that three supernovae, 2003hi, 2003hj and 2003hk, have been found by Tom Boles.

I well remember the morning of October 23, 1996 when Mark Armstrong, rang me in the 'dead of night' to say he had found a supernova on electronic images of another galaxy. It took a few moments to realise this was the first supernova found by any observer, professional or amateur, based in the UK in living memory!

Now the combined efforts of Mark Armstrong, Tom Boles, Stephen Laurie, Steven Foulkes and Ron Arbour have clocked up an amazing 100 supernova discoveries and on behalf of myself and every amateur astronomer, we congratulate their efforts.

I stand in awe of this extraordinary achievement by members of the British Astronomical Association who have contributed greatly to our scientific investigation of these exploding stars.

Guy M Hurst
BAA President

(Extract from a BAA Press Release being issued today)