Supernova in M51

wegotsch · Post by **wegotsch** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:54 pm

Viewing the APOD from July 19 on the Supernova, while I found I the one you were discussing, there was a second interesting feature in the "after" exposure. Between the last and next to last sprial arm and slightly just above a line that goes horizontally throught the galaxy center there are two bright suns. From the original exposure to the "after" one there seems to be a significant brightening of the left hand object. Is this something of interest or is it just an artifact of the "after" exposure?

Empeda · Post by **Empeda** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:43 pm

Nice spot (excuse the pun...)! Though I would presume it is more to do with focus after looking at the foreground stars, but I'm also interested to know if anybody knows otherwise.....

Recycled Electrons · Post by **Recycled Electrons** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:56 pm

Those two stars are foreground stars. So, yes, the brightening is a result of the different exposures and not a significant event.

Recycled Electrons · Post by **Recycled Electrons** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:01 am

You also might want to take a look here:

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=602

where the author of the image has posted.