Supernova SN 2021vaz in NGC 1961 galaxy: an image – 27 Oct. 2021.
We observed the supernova SN 2021vaz in the NGC 1961 spiral galaxy, as part of our supernova follow-up program: here it is our image.
Supernova SN 2021vaz in NGC 1961 galaxy: 27 Oct. 2021.
The image above comes from the average of seven, 120-second exposures, unfiltered, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project. The supernova is indicated by an arrow in the upper left inset.
The host is NGC 1961, a spiral galaxy located at about 200 millions of light years: despite such a huge distance, it is angularly large, so it is at least 200 thousands of light years in diameter (significantly larger than our Milky Way). Its structure looks clearly distorted, though a companion is so far missing. As for the supernova, we estimated SN 2021vaz as bright as mag. 15.4 (unfiltered, R-mags for the reference stars from the Gaia DR2 star catalogue). This transient was discovered on 05 August 2021 by Koichi Itagaki and it is a type II supernova.
Further observations will follow, weather permitting.
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