Nova CI Aquila 2000

Nova CI Aquila, 2000/4/30.33 UT. Olympus OM-1, 50mm lens at f1.8. Kodak Max 400 film. 40 second exposure on a tripod, 2000/4/30 3:58 EDT. Greene County, Pittsburgh

Confirmation of CI Aql. 2000/7/22 23:48 EDT 2minute 50mm/f1.8 piggyback Fuji 800 film. NEWO, Pittsburgh

It's 4 am in the morning. I was very tired and cold. There were a few frames left in the camera but I really couldn't bear to do more piggyback tracking. Thus I randomly took some short exposures so that I can have the roll developed.

I was unaware that one day ago, Kesao Takamizawa and Minoru Yamamoto, Japan, discovered a nova in Aquila. After I saw the news the second day, I rushed to my photos and yes! I captured that part of the sky on the second to last frame! After referring to several star charts and with the help from several AAAP members, I identified the possible nova. In the photo, north is up, west on the right, and the field of view is about 4 degrees. The yellow arrows point to 5, 7, and 8 Aquilae. Other thin yellow lines point to its surrounding bright (>9.5) stars that 's on the AAVSO chart. The red arrow indicates the possible trail of CI Aql. From the photo it appears to be slightly brighter than the 9.3 star, and I would estimate its magnitude as 9.2. I reported the story to AAVSO.

I'm glad that I took the seemingly uninteresting photo. I'll take another photo of the same area in the future to confirm that it is the nova (see the right photo. By the time this photo is taken, the nova has faded well below the sensitivity of the film).