NGC 3191 and the hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova SN 2017egm
 
  Size: 1800 px      
 
© Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov 2017

On May 23th 2017, the Gaia Photometric Science Alerts programme reported the discovery of an apparent supernova in the galaxy NGC 3191. Later it was designed as SN 2017egm. It turned out to be the closest hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) ever found. On June 23th we managed to capture an image of this rare cosmic explosion. The measured magnitude is 14.5, and assuming the distance to the galaxy of about 420 million light years, we can conclude that the absolute magnitude of the supernova is -21.1, which is comparable to our entire galaxy, the Milky Way. Below can be seen a highly magnified crop:

Image details:

Annotation
Center of field RA 10:19:07 (h:m:s)
Center of field DE +46:27:10 (deg:m:s)
Size 45.4 x 31.9 (arcmin)
Pixel scale: 1.26 (arcsec/pixel)
Orientation: Up is 109 degrees E of N
Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net
Optic(s): ASA 12" Astrograph @ f/3.6 (Newton)
Mount: ASA DDM85 Standard
Camera: SBIG STL 11000 M
Filters: Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, Astronomik filters, Ha Baader filter
Dates/Times: 23 June 2017
Location: IRIDA Observatory, BG, longitude: E 24 44' 18", latitude: N 41 41' 42"
Exp. Details: R:1x5 min, G:R:1x5 min, B:R:1x5 min, Total Exposure Time - 15 min.
More details: Dark and flat frames reduction
Processing: PixInsight / PS
 
Copyright: Velimir Popov and Emil Ivanov 2013 - 2017. All Rights Reserved
 
e-mail: info@irida-observatory.org
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