This was a real New Year's present to observers.
On December 30, Kazuyoshi Kanatsu of Japan reported a previously invisible ninth magnitude object in a CCD frame exposed on 2000 December 22. As often happens, the object is right in our own back yard, whereas it was quite low in the sky as observed from Japan. We should have noticed it first!
The discovery highlights the value of visual observing. The announcement came eight days after the exposure, which probably meant that the download was sitting in Kanatsu's computer memory for about a week before he processed it, denying astronomers the opportunity of studying the nova in its early stages. Still, better late than never and we congratulate Kanatsu.
It is easy to find and identify the field without setting circles. The nova lies between the naked eye stars marked m and k Puppi in Norton. The field immediately surrounding it is shaped like the Southern Cross, shrunk by a factor of 90. The star marked 104 corresponds to alpha Crucis, the 99 to delta, the 87 to gamma and the star with no magnitude to beta. The nova corresponds more or less to the Jewel Box. What could be easier? Have a look and let Brian, Jan Hers or myself have your estimates. It was mag 10.0 this morning but fluctuates in brightness.
Good observing!
Danie Overbeek
2001 01 22.