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Well, Glen, at least in the case of visual observations it often will depend on the nova itself. Some novae very rapidly change in brightness in the first few days following maximum; slower novae hardly at all. Obviously, the really fast ones could be estimated every couple of hours, while the slower ones need but one estimate per night by the observer.
In the instance of Nova Del 2013, I started out making two estimates per night right after discovery, but once it became clear to me that this was a relatively slow nova, I dropped back to just one estimate per night. Observers definitely don't want to over-observe an only slowly varying object, since that just serves to skew the object's lightcurve in favor of that particular observer.
Well, Glen, at least in the case of visual observations it often will depend on the nova itself. Some novae very rapidly change in brightness in the first few days following maximum; slower novae hardly at all. Obviously, the really fast ones could be estimated every couple of hours, while the slower ones need but one estimate per night by the observer.
In the instance of Nova Del 2013, I started out making two estimates per night right after discovery, but once it became clear to me that this was a relatively slow nova, I dropped back to just one estimate per night. Observers definitely don't want to over-observe an only slowly varying object, since that just serves to skew the object's lightcurve in favor of that particular observer.
J.Bortle (BRJ)
Excellent, thanks for heads up. Once this thing starts to dim I will definitely be tickling its belly as much as possible