Hey we did our best for the short window and thanks for getting me out for the challenge. I enjoyed it.

I finally got a good clear night, and I broke out the heavy metal, my 11×80 binoculars. Using your AAVSO finder chart and my Millennium Atlas I was able to star hop right to the spot–and there was nothing there. It must have dimmed below my limiting magnitude (around 9 or 10). I know I was in the right spot because Millennium shows a mag 7 or 8 star about 6′ N at the same RA, which I could easily see, but there was nothing else there.

As a consolation prize, I did get a satellite (about mag 4) slowly creeping through the field, headed E, alternately brightening and dimming as it tumbled through space. It was spooky. It must have been high up there, because it was moving very slowly and was still catching sunlight at 10 PM local time.

I have a feeling this nova is fading fast.

I used the charts on the S&T website and Sky Atlas, Uranometria, and Millennium, but because of the awkward observing position, almost directly overhead. I’ve had trouble twisting myself into a position where I could both observe and use the charts comfortably.

I don’t recall any “fuzziness” in the star I observed, but it looked distinctly yellowish to me. Can you confirm? My eyes are 66 years old, and my fast refractors poorly color-corrected.

It never occured to me to download the AAVSO Binoc chart, it is optimum for just this application.

Think I’ll set the camera up and try and get a picture this week to confirm my sighting and see if I can bring out some details.

Everything went wrong.

As Napoleon once said, all major battles are fought where four maps come together. None of my atlases showed the entire field, and if they did, it was at the wrong scale. Uranometria showed too many stars, and Sky Atlas didn’t show enough. On top of that, the moon and the streetlights washed everything out, and the nova is almost directly overhead at my latitude, so I couldn’t get comfortable to search for it without lying flat on the ground.

The nearest naked-eye landmark was the little asterism of Delphinus, but it was invisible to the naked eye in the glare, although I did manage to find it in the glass. On top of that, there were clouds. So I couldn’t look for more than a few minutes without gettng interrupted.

Then there was the problem of consulting the charts, which required fumbling with a flashlight and reading glasses, lying down and getting up and leaning over to read them. AAAARGH.

But I think I saw it. A little star that looked just like all the others…I think I was looking in the right place… where the charts said nothing should be.

Wow. I’ve never seen a nova before.