
NOVA CAS 2021
V1405 Cas • Classical nova • Cassiopeia • 5500 light-years from Earth
🔭
Askar FRA400
📷
ZWO 2600MC Pro
🌃
Bortle 8
⏱️
30 mins
🗓️
March 2021
Overview
Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 was discovered just two days before this image was captured. The outburst occurred around 5500 light years from Earth and involved a white dwarf star drawing material from a nearby companion. As gas built up on the white dwarf’s surface, rising temperature and pressure triggered a thermonuclear explosion, causing the system to brighten dramatically. The sudden increase in light seen here marks the moment that eruption became visible from Earth.
Background
The night sky may seem eternal and never-changing, but ask any Ancient Greek and they’d tell you that’s not the case. In March 2021 a nova star was detected, and word quickly spread around the astronomical community. It was fairly bright, especially so soon after being detected, so well within my the limits of my telescope and camera. The weather was fairly grotty but there was a short enough break in the clouds to quickly gather some subs. It took a bit of work and staring at star charts to actually identify the nova within the initial wide field of view — check out the example data below and you’ll see what I mean!

Kit list
This is the equipment I used to capture the image.
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Telescope: Askar FRA400
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Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
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Guidescope: William Optics 32mm Slide-Base Uniguide
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Guidecam: ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
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Control: ASIAIR Plus
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Example source data
Here’s an example single subframe and freshly integrated stack, just with simple stretches applied.


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