Nova Muscae 2018

Crux, Eta Carina and Nova Muscae amongst the Milky Way. Image by author, 55mm f3.5 lens and Olympus OMD EM5

A couple of days ago (Jan 14, 2018) Rob Kauffman an amateur astronomer located in Victoria, Australia, discovered a Nova (“New Star”) in the Southern constellation of Musca. Last night I took a couple of images of the nova which is located near The Southern Cross – a constellation that appears on the flags of Australia and New Zealand. The Southern Cross’s correct name is Crux.

I am going to guess not many people will find the nova in the above photo (!), so I included a labelled version below. Causes for a nova vary, but generally they involve the interaction of two stars near one another. In the classic nova scenario, material from a star is drawn into an accretion disk surrounding a companion white dwarf star. The material, mostly hydrogen, is heated to a point fusion can happen causing a massive burst of energy which we witness as a nova.

Currently, it is bright enough to see in binoculars, but you do need to be in the southern hemisphere to see it. I did try to image it with the iphone, but didn’t quite have enough exposure at 12 seconds, but here is the result anyway, which gives a pretty good idea of what the sky looked like with the unaided eye.