McNeil Nebula and V1647 Ori: still bright, new observing season started (26 Aug. 2015)
The McNeil Nebula and V1647 Ori on 26 Aug. 2015
V1647 Ori and the associated McNeil Nebula continues to amaze us at Virtual Telescope every time we look at them. We have been tracking it since it was discovered in 2004. Every year we have a look to see it the star is in outburst or not.
On 26 Aug. 2015, under very good sky conditions, we had our first look after Orion, the hosting constellation, emerged at dawn from its conjunction with the Sun. Our last visit was on 30 March 2015.
The image above comes from the average of two, 300-seconds exposures, remotely taken with the PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E robotic unit. The object is in the very center of the image, while on the upper left there is the bright, famous Messier 78. The star was estimated at mag 17.1, unfiltered (26 Aug. 2015). This is only marginally fainter than in 30 March, when we measured mag. 17.0.
With these observations we started the new observing season and plan to look at this object regularly.
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