Nova Aquilae 1999 No.2 (V1494 Aquilae)

1999/12/2 18:25 (mag 3.7)

1999/12/3 17:52 (mag 4.2)

1999/12/7 18:31 (mag 5.9)

1999/12/11 18:11 (mag 6.1)

The first nova I ever observed. These images were taken with a camcorder directly. The nova is the star near the top of each image: it fades out in about 1 week. The bottom left star in each image is Delta Aquilae with magnitude 3.4. The distance between the nova and Delta Aquilae is about 5 degree. The time under each image is EST. The magnitudes are my estimates by comparing the nova with several neighbouring stars (the method is described in the following section).

When the nova was bright, we looked through a telescope and estimated its color. I thought it was yellow-greenish, yet my wife insisted it was orange. After I posted this argument, we get an interesting reply from Jason Crawford:

"Your wife is probably right. Women have a higher ratio of cones to rods than men, and thus are able to better detect colors, especially in low lighting conditions such as astronomical observation. (Rods are the nerves in your eye which detect light intensity; cones are the nerves which detect color.) When Hale-Bopp came around some years ago, a friend of mine told me that he saw it as a spot in the sky, but his wife, upon seeing it, immediately exclaimed "Oh, it's green!" (Thank you, Jason!)