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Hello All, Between time demands of work, family and the occasional clear night I am struggling to keep up with the discussion on nova search and LPVs. I also continue a regular visual nova search in several areas along the the southern Milky Way in Vela, Crux/Centaurus and Scorpius/Sagittarius. This is done with hand held 10x50mm binoculars to a limiting magnitude near 8 with the aim of recognising any novae present to magnitude 7 or brighter. This search is usually followed by (or preceeded by) a quick naked eye search along the Milky Way to magnitude 3 or 4. My nova search usually represents the final stages of dark adaption before moving onto the binocular variables. To date, there have been no novae to these limits discovered in these fields on the nights I have observed and therefore missed. There are also one or two nights when I SHOULD have observed...... Hmmm. Not surprisingly, the binocular search areas seem to connect a number of fields surrounding binocular and telescopic variables on my regular working list. Each of my 30+ binocular variables near the plane of the galaxy also double as nova search fields as I feel an object of magnitude 6 or brighter would be quite obvious to the alert observer, depending upon its location with respect to the variable and comparisons under observation. This can be extended further to include the wider low magnification telescopic fields when star hopping between nearby variables. A number of asteroids have been reported through the vsnet in this manner. And who knows, it may even be possible to discover a comet in this way!! Without doubt, photography is far more efficient than visual but this should not deter the visual searcher. It is all a matter of timing and recognision. The sky is there to enjoy and if we are not looking at all, we will miss everything! Regards Peter Williams Heathcote NSW
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vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
