Nova Scorpii 2007

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In February 2007, the constellation Scorpius had a couple of visitors: not only was the planet Jupiter passing through, but there was an extra star! Nova Scorpii 2007 (also known as V1280 Scorpii) was discovered on February 4, and by mid-month reached a peak brightness of magnitude 3.9 -- easily visible from dark-sky sites. When I took this photo before dawn on February 21, the nova had dimmed slightly to magnitude 4.9 and was just a bit too dim for me to see it with the naked eye from this moderately light-polluted site on the outskirts of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Position your mouse cursor over the image to show the nova, the constellation, and the planet Jupiter.

Date: February 21, 2007
Time: 5:56 a.m. MST
Location: south of Phoenix, Arizona
Camera: Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR on fixed tripod
Film: Kodak Elite Chrome 400 slide (pushed one stop)
Focal length: 40 mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure time: 15 seconds
Scanner: Nikon Coolscan LS-2000