NGC 5301, Spiral Galaxy

Spiral Galaxy NGC 5301 - Supernova 2009 at

Spiral Galaxy NGC 5301 and Supernova 2009 at
A 15 minute exposure taken with an STL-1301E CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20 inch F/8.1 telescope at 3:10 UT on May 13, 2009. The field of view is about 20x22 arc minutes with North at the top.

Supernova 2009 at:

Discovered March 11th, 2009, by Toshihide Noguchi of Japan.
Magnitude at discovery: 15.2
Type: II
The supernova is magnitude 17.0 in the Kopernik image, taken on May 13, 2009 at 3:10 UT.

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 5301:

This 12.9 magnitude nearly edge-on spiral galaxy is in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It has a bright bulge, partially obscured by a dark lane. NGC 5301 has a very small nucleus, (or no definite nucleus), with two main spiral arms and a strong dark lane. Since the galaxy is nearly edge-on the exact classification is uncertain.

Based on the published red shift, (and a Hubble Constant of 73 Km/sec per Mpc) a rough distance estimate for NGC 5301 and SN 2009 at is 67 million light years, with a galaxy diameter of about 38,000 light years.

NGC 5301
Magnitude: 12.9
Constellation: Canes Venatici
RA: 13h 46m 24.2s
Dec: +46° 06' 30" Epoch 2000
Size (mins): 4.2' x 0.8'
Classification: SA(s)bc: sp - Spiral Galaxy, s-shaped, spindle shaped, all uncertain because galaxy is nearly edge-on

George Normandin, KAS

May 14th, 2009