Walter's LogBook
	2008

Overview

Once again, conditions were cloudier this year than last. Despite this, 2008 was a pretty good year: variable star imaging managed to surpass last year (thanks to my ongoing Mira program and continuing automation) and I found my second supernova!

The SXV-H9 is the imaging camera, with exposures for variable stars of 120 seconds at 4x4 binning (unguided). This year's session notes are below the overview section.

Monthly Statistics for 2008
Month	# Nights	Imaging Time (hr)	Exposure Time (hr)	# Targets	# Exposures
January	8 nights	63.86	51.52	783	2759
February	11 nights	81.36	58.31	784	2761
March	8 nights	71.04	55.75	804	3050
April	8 nights	53.07	34.00	638	1977
May	4 nights	25.01	15.10	466	1659
June	1 night	5.44	3.11	161	572
July	7 nights	38.35	23.97	575	1826
August	2 nights	16.46	9.53	317	977
September	2 nights	16.29	7.95	100	246
December	5 nights	45.05	27.54	623	1928
2008 total	56 nights	415.92	286.79	5251	17755

Session Notes

2008 February 10/11

The session was ended when the sky became too cloudy. When I went out to put the lid on the scope and close the dome, I could see first magnitude stars in the sky and yet it was snowing -- it was a "starflurry", a very rare occurrence!

2008 February 11/12

The scope got lost twice tonight (once when it went up into Cam, once when it went up into UMa). I had to go out and aim the scope with the finder a couple of times and the scope was way out -- on the order of 10 degrees. So I finally built a plan that skipped stuff north of 50 degrees declination and the plan ran for about 5 hours without incident until twilight. Hopefully it is just an effect of the cold and not a "real" telescope problem.

2008 April 22

As part of my supernova scans for Wednesday, April 16th, I found a candidate in UGC 11241 -- and it almost got away on us! Fortunately the universe unfolded as it should and on April 22 it became official in CBET 1346:

SUPERNOVA 2008bw IN UGC 11241
Further to CBET 1293, E. Guido, Castellammare di Stabia, Italy; W. MacDonald, Winchester, ON, Canada; and T. Puckett, Ellijay, GA, U.S.A., report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 18.0) on an unfiltered CCD frame taken with the 0.60-m reflector at Ellijay on Apr. 21.29 UT in the course of the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search. SN 2008bw is located at R.A. = 18h26m50s.46, Decl. = +51o08'16".6 (equinox 2000.0), which is 5".0 east and 4".9 south of the center of UGC 11241. The new object was confirmed on multiple combined CCD frames taken by Puckett with a 0.60-m reflector on Apr. 22.25 (the new object at mag 18.0). Nothing is visible at this position on images taken by Puckett on 2007 May 12 and 2004 Aug. 10 (limiting mag about 20.0). SN 2005cy also appeared in this galaxy.

So there it is: my second supernova discovery!

Supernova 2008bw in UGC 11241
Pre-discovery image.	Discovery image.

2008 April 18/19

This session was run remotely from Yarker (I had left the dome open upon leaving Winchester). Unfortunately cloud (in combination with the moon) cut the session short.

2008 August 30/31

I imaged a comet tonight in addition to the usual variable star run.

Comet Boattini (2007 W1)

SXV-H9 binned 2x2, Johnson V filter, 14 x 30 seconds.