Could i have just found a new star?

Question

I was doing a little stargazing, and I saw the constellation Cassiopeia. about 1/3 the way from the star Shedir in the direction of the star Tsih I aw a star through my telescope that isn't on any star maps. its pretty dim. it could be really far or it could be a new star! Is it possible its a new star previously un known?

Answer 1

Be advised that there are almost as many starmaps in existence as there are stars! OK, I exaggerate, but there really are an awful lot of them! Norton's only goes down to around magnitude 6.0 or 6.5; Wil Tirion's goes down to I think, mag 8; others go deeper; some have millions of entries. The star you saw is guaranteed to be already charted, unless it is truly a nova or supernova. If it is one of those cataclysmic types, there are places to check for recent discoveries of such objects.



If you can make an accurate estimate of its magnitude and its location, try consulting some planetarium app -- I have one on my old Palm Tungsten PDA, called, "2Sky" ($); another on my iPhone called, StarMap Pro ($); and on my Mac I have Stellarium (free), which I strongly recommend for things like this.



You can download it free for either PC, Mac, or Linux, and then download (also free!) several successively deeper, more numerous starmaps, down to 18th magnitude!



StarMap on my iPhone, shows:



Schedar (spellings of star names sometimes vary) as α-Cas (brightest in Cassiopeia),

- at mag 2.2; RA=00:40:30, dec=56º32'15"



Tsih = γ-Cas, at mag 2.2; RA=00:56:43, dec=60º43'00"



And about ⅓ of the way from Schedar to Tsih is:



η-Cas, at mag 3.5; RA=00:49:05, dec=57º49'00"



which looks like it could be what you saw, but it is sure to be on *every* star chart. There are lots of dimmer stars in the area; I can't tell from this sparse info what you've found. But try looking into one of these other sources -- you might recognize it on one of them.



(If you're unfamiliar with Right Ascension and declination, they are a kind of spherical polar coordinate system on the sky, sort of like longitude and latitude, with RA measured in hr-min-sec from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59, increasing toward the east, and dec in degrees, north (+) or south(-) of the celestial equator. Try the Sky&Tel website for tutorials on this and other astro-basics, if needed.)

Answer 2

Can't find Tsih on my maps - sorry. suppose it could be a nova; more likely you need to consult a star atlas - Tirion for example. What kind of telescope are you using? The probability that it is something new or a nova is pretty low.

Answer 3

While it's remotely possible you have discovered a distant nova or supernova, it's much more likely that you just found a star dimmer than the limiting magnitude of any of your star charts. Get the approximate coordinates from your star atlas and input them at the link below. Unless you have the software to deal with FITS images, be sure to set the file format to GIF. You'll get a digitized image from your choice of sky surveys.



Digitized Sky Survey: http://stdatu.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form

Answer 4

Not on any star maps ? Are you sure? Have you checked the coordinates in NOMAD (1 billion stars)? Once you do that, come back with more information -- like the actual coordinates and magnitude.



Planetary Nebula PN G122.1-04.9 is about where you said. Where is your new star relative to that? Also HD 4253 is pretty close, and at magnitude 8.33 should be on your star charts.

Answer 5

i'm no longer the main romantic individual in the international, in basic terms throw me over your shoulder and drag me into your cave lmao!! yet I do prefer to look as much as the sky, whether or no longer this is the celebs, sunsets, clouds or an rather good thunder typhoon : )

Answer 6

To verify your find contact IAU astronomical telegrams dept.

You have to find the exact location in Right ascension and declination and the magnitude of your find. Then only they can verify your find!

Answer 7

How far down in magnitude do your charts go?

Answer 8

Contact the AIA Astronomy intelligence agency. there's literally million upon trillions of star in the nighttime sky, 90% of them prob don't exist anymore. and of the 90% only 1/2 of them are with in the milkyway galaxy. since we're lovcated on the outer rim, we see stars from other galaxy of the social cluster.

Answer 9

No, you didn't. Nuff said.



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