SN 2026 fvx in Draco
Taken by Steve Cooperman on April 6, 2026 @
Woodland Hills, CA, USA
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Details:
Here's a brand new supernova, still getting brighter as seen in this photo (25 min exposure of 4 sec subframes) compared to published photos:
https://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html#2026fvx
It says it's a Type Ia, where one of the progenitor stars is a white dwarf. It's about 65 MLY distant. The supernova is about magnitude 12.9 (estimated with an Excel spreadsheet and known stars), and its galaxy, NGC 4205, is about magnitude 13.0 and is circumpolar in Draco. I had a problem finding it at first because I was using 2026 coordinates in the new version of SkySafari, and I should have been using 2000 (a standard). Limiting magnitude, according to Stellarium Mobile, is about 18.8.
The supernova was obvious in the 1st 4-sec exposure, although the galaxy was just a blur.
According to SkySafari 8.0, I also caught two other galaxies:
PGC 213955 (about 150 MLY distant, magnitude 15.9) and
PGC 2660403 (about 2300 MLY distant (another record for me, but it's just a smudge), magnitude 17.5.
What amazes me is that that's ONE star of a typical galaxy that might have several hundred BILLION stars in it. And that light started on its journey to us around the time the dinosaurs were obliterated by a much less energetic event -- an asteroidal impact -- but certainly catastrophic enough for Earth.
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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