Spiral Galaxy NGC 3949 & Supernova 2000db

A 7 minute exposure with an ST-6 CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20-inch F/8.1 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope. The field of view is about 5x7 arc minutes, with North at the top. Time: 2:18 UT, August 22nd, 2000.

Supernova 2000db:

Discovered: August 6th, 2000, by Masakatsu Aoki.

• Magnitude 14.3 at discovery
• Type unknown
• The supernova is magnitude 14.5 in the Kopernik image.

Follow this Link to a NASA Web site on supernovas. It has a very nice animation and a description of what these objects are.

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3949:

This 11.6 magnitude spiral galaxy is in the constellation of Ursa Major. A rough distance estimate for this galaxy is 42 million light years, and at that distance, the diameter would be 35,800 light years. A background elliptical galaxy is 1.6 arc minutes to the north (marked 'G' in the negative version of the Kopernik image).

• NGC 3949
• Magnitude: 11.6
• Constellation: Ursa Major
• RA: 11h 53m 41.4s
• Dec: +47° 51' 35" Epoch 2000
• Size (mins): 2.9' x 1.6'
• Classification: Spiral Galaxy
  

Click below to

George Normandin, KAS

August 22nd, 2000