The Independent Discovery of Nova Aquilae 1999 No.2

by Gary T. Nowak

It had been over a week since we had any clear weather in Vermont. Arriving at our club's observatory; I had intended to do some comet searching. As I set up my tripod, I noticed that the sky contrast was rather poor, probably due to ice crystals in the atmosphere coming from Lake Champlain. At that point I decided to do some nova searching. Usually I use a pair of 8 x 42 binoculars to do nova searching, but I felt a bit lazy and used the binoculars that I had at hand in my Star Atlas Case: a pair of wide-angle 7 x 35's.

I mounted the 7 x 35's on my tripod and started to sweep the Scutum-Aquila Area. The sky transparency was +5.0 and the seeing was 5.0 (0-10 scale). I started to sweep Scutum but most of the constellation had set behind the Adirondacks. So I moved up to Altair. I could feel the NE wind blowing (about 12 mph) on my right side and when I looked at the thermometer; it read +12 degrees Fahrenheit.

From Altair, I moved the binocs down to Delta Aql and then swept right to 22 Aql. I was immediately struck by the appearance of a bright, yellowish star near 22 Aql. At first I thought the star was an Sky Atlas 2000 chart error.

After checking Uranometria 2000 and not finding it; I knew that I had a good possibility for a nova. I quickly noted the time, Dec. 1.958 UT, and made a visual estimate of +5.6 magnitude. The next thing I needed to rule out was the possibility that the yellowish star was actually an asteroid. I consulted the RASC Observer's Handbook and found no asteroids in the area.

At this point I knew I needed to get confirmation before I sent out any claim to CBAT, and before I could get confirmation, I needed to get an good, accurate position. So I dismounted my 7 x 35's and mounted my 20 x 100 binocs on the tripod. Using the 20 x 100's, I was able to get a good position fix on the nova using Uranometria 2000. The nova had a distinct pale blue-strong yellow color.

Now all I needed was someone reputable to confirm my object. Without confirmation it would be very foolish for me to contact CBAT only to find out that "Your Nova Discovery" had been known for a week or was some printer's omission on a star chart. I decided to call John Bortle and got the cell phone out of the car. I called John's house but he was out. I then laid the cell phone down on top of my Star Atlas Case and viewed the possible nova for movement. I didn't detect any movement, so I was pretty sure it wasn't an asteroid.

Next I decided to call AAVSO. As I was punching in the number on the cell phone, I noticed that the power level indicator was low (no doubt due to the cold). I called the 1-888 number and left a message asking for confirmation of the nova.

By this time the object had started to set, so I packed up my gear and left the area. When I arrived at my apartment, I jumped on the computer, sent out another message to John Bortle and AAVSO asking for confirmation. I do remember that I had trouble deciding which e-mail address to use on the AAVSO Home Page.

By the next day I still had heard nothing from AAVSO. After work I checked the Alert Notices and found out that there was a nova discovery by Alfredo Pereira and no one else was listed as a discoverer.

At this point I felt "rejected" and decided to call Dr. Janet Mattei to see what happened. Janet told me that there was a nova discovered in Aquila and that Headquarters had gotten my e-mail through the website; through some communication mix-up my observation was taken as one of the nova observations and was included in the Alert Notice and News Flash as such, rather than an independent discovery observation. She also said that my cell phone message didn't get through and was never received at Headquarters.

Later that day, Dr. Mattei call to say that after hearing my story and reviewing my e-mail message, there was no question of my independent discovery of Nova Aquilae No. 2, and that she reported it as such to CBAT. A few hours later, my independent discovery was announced in the IAU Circular 7325 from CBAT. Now I don't feel rejected anymore.

I started to hunt novae visually with binoculars as a supplement to my other observing programs on 13 Sept. 1991 and it took me 228 hours of visual searching spread over 157 sessions to find my first nova.