Supernova Observation

Syllabus

• Syllabus

Target Selection Links

1. Supernovae identified by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) are within our grasp. Supernovae have various brightnesses with the brightest ones having peak luminosity brighter than magnitude 17. A pre-digested list of supernovae is the Rochester Astronomy of Science’s compendium.
2. However, generally, we don’t want to wait for a candidate to appear in a compendium, so we use the ALeRCE search tool for ZTF candidates
3. Or sometimes another ALeRCE tool, Supernovae Hunter search
4. One more place to hunt for candidates is the IAU Transient Name Server because it gets candidates from sources, such as the ATLAS collaboration

Random Notes

1. LEDA identifiers are often the same as PGC identifiers
2. For accessing photos of the target region, use this resource and select DSS2 Red

Week of March 18 Work Plan

• Work on internet at Henderson (successfully fixed)
• Work on internet at seismic (successfully fixed, and we have internet at the observatory again)
• Re-do collimation (did everything but back-focus)
• Get the video work with the Celestron done
• March 19 (UTC) observe ZTF24aagupsf in PGC 58391, too dim
• March 20 (UTC) try observing SN ZTF24aahgqwk in NGC 3443, which is very promising
• March 21 (UTC) continue observing SN ZTF24aahgqwk in NGC 3443 despite weather barely cooperating
• March 23 (UTC) continue observing SN ZTF24aahgqwk in NGC 3443 despite bright moon

Week of March 25 Work Plan

• March 25, pre-dawn, continue SN ZTF24aahgqwk in NGC 3443 pre-dawn due to bad evening weather
• March 25 Make mini-desk for laptop in dome, and install monitor, 2.4GHz mouse, and keyboard
• March 26 Re-do cabling now with laptop on mini-desk in dome
• March 26 Re-do sky model, because the last two observing runs, the target has been 5 arcminutes displaced
• March 27 (UTC) continue observing SN ZTF24aahgqwk in NGC 3443, moon is now improving