A Nova Story

From the photographer: “In January 2018 two novae were discovered in deep southern constellations of Musca and Circinus. Both Nova Mus 2018 and Cir 2018 reached magnitude of about 7, bright enough to be spotted by binoculars. I was on an imaging trip in Hawaii, where both novae could be visible. After the stint of bad weather I was able to catch the part of the sky with the two novae on 31st January, during the total Lunar eclipse. The deep southern constellations and Milky Way appear in this view including the both novae, as seen from the rim of Kilauea Caldera.”

Move the slider on the image for the annotated version, marking the constellations, bright stars, a few prominent deep sky objects and the novae. At the time of photography (31st January, 1410 UT), Nova Mus 2018 was at mag. 8.0, while Nova Cir 2018 was at magnitude 7.5. Meaning, the annotated version has to include detailed insets for both novae, which could otherwise be lost among many other similar looking stars.