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Tue, 10/29/2013 - 13:51
Is recurrent nova V3890 Sgr a little brighter than usual? I imaged the field tonight and rather than the usual fainter-than, I could see the star. Here's a link to the image (stack of 4 subs) with annotations.
http://s727.photobucket.com/user/Rob_Kau/media/V3890Sgr29Oct2013cropresizeb.jpg.html
My data is too poor at these magnitudes to make anything more than a guess but it appears to be around mag 14 in the green channel, give-or-take. In the database the last positive obs was 14.64 on 19 Oct 2013 (also brightest obs for the year), and the last visual fainter-than was <14.0 on 26 Oct. One for the south really but maybe it's worth having a look at.
Cheers -
Rob Kaufman KBJ
I visually estimated it at 14.35 last night. This is about a half magnitude brighter than I usually see it. Unfortunately, its observing season is rapicly approaching the end, so will be tough to follow the next few months.
Mike LMK
V3890 Sgr varies from the mid 14's to as faint as 17.0V in quiescence. So what recent observations show is probably normal. If the star gets brighter than 14.0, then we may be looking at an outburst. The last one occurred in 1990, so another one could happen any time. From mid-northern latitudes, this star can be observed through mid-November. From southern latitudes, late November. This star is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Bob
I observed it last night, and its about v=14.6 which is a bit fainter than last week, more in line with its normal range. Its getting low in SW and often clouds there, maybe one more week for me?
Mike LMK