[vsnet-chat 1936] Re: Eta Car [vsnet-obs 20855] (fwd) Re: Nova Vel 1999, any prediscovery data?

[Bish Ishibashi <bish@astro.spa.umn.edu>]

Howdy all, 

Peter Williams wrote on Sat, 29 May 1999 15:38:07 +1000:
>Incidently, I do not make Eta Car as bright as has been reported.  On most
>nights I have been able to hold HD92964 comfortably with the naked eye from
>Heathcote but require a little too much imagination to see Eta.  My current
>estimates with 10x50mm binoculars place Eta Car at 5.6.  Perhaps this
>merely represents different results for the visual observer?

I won't be surprised if so. 

There is a HST/WFPC observation scheduled next month (early June is
all I know) by Jon Morse, JILA, Colorado. I hope that help settle 
the issue on Eta's brightness (though it won't be any Johnson V filter 
used there). 

BTW, I happened to be at the Big Island in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. 
Well I've been studying Eta Carinae for 3 years, and for the first time 
I saw the actual star with a small pair of binocular; but I couldn't tell 
squat with naked eyes.(it took me 5 minutes to spot; but it took me 2 hours 
of driving to find clear sky in that island!!) So I was guessing that the 
magnitude wasn't less than 5.0, which was about as faint as I can see, then. 
But, hey, it was my first time...(besides, sec.z = 5.6 there; go figure). 

Thanks for looking, Cheers.

Bish 

-- 
		
......................................................................
 "Bish" Kazunori Ishibashi - (W)1-612-6261756 - bish@astro.spa.umn.edu

  Department of Astronomy    (F)1-612-6262029
  University of Minnesota     X-ray/UV -- Eta Carinae Group 
  116 Church St. S.E.                  
  Minneapolis, MN 55455                
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