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My first discovery of a supernova.
( NGC 5308 R.A. 13h 47m 03.7s Dec. +60° 50' 02" )

Without computer and CCD I made this discovery the old fashion-way by peering throuh the ocular of my new home made 61cm telescope.

I had searched for supernovae approximatly for 3 months and on the 10th october 1996 the sky was again dark and clear when I started my visual search. With Uranometria and my handwritten list of galaxies next to me I started the search of the same sequence of galaxies I had done the week before.

When I came to NGC 5308 I noticed at once the asymmetry of the galaxy which indicated a star present.The next day I went to the University in Oslo and found a picture of the galaxy. The galaxy seem to be completly symetric in the picture so I carefully made a drawing of the galaxy with its surrounding stars. Now I was ready to make a new observation of the galaxy. But as often happens, the clouds had allready come and they lasted for many days. I could not make the verification.

I did not know anyone else with a big telescope, and there was not a well developed supernova search group in Norway either, so after many days with only clouds, I desided that this is hopeless and made a handwritten letter to AAVSO and reported my estimated magnitude of the first observation.
The suspect object was at mag.14.0.

Later I learned that two Italian observers had discovered it on the 12th and made it official allready the next day.
That's life, I did not get a discovery credit of this one, but it does not matter. I now know that great SN discoverers have experienced the same ( Robert Ewans , Michael Schwartz ).
But I am proud to know that I made a visual discovery, my first with a home-made telescope, nothing can change that.

Image by Nick James.

The visual discovery of SN1996bk by Stefano Pesci


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