APOW
Assassin Picture of the Week

2015 September 7

ASASSN-15oz: The First Supernova Discovered Using New "Cassius" Telescope

In December 2014 ASAS-SN was awarded generous grants from the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation (hardware costs) and George Skestos (installation costs) to expand our Chile "Cassius" unit from two to four telescopes. We immediately ordered new Nikon lenses and ProLine PL230 cameras from FLI, and in early July 2015, thanks to hard work by LCOGT team, our two new cameras were deployed and started taking data.

For many telescopes there is a long delay (sometimes years) between the "first light", when the telescopes takes it first image, and actually taking useful data suitable for doing science. However, that delay is not long at all for ASAS-SN: once we collect several good images of a field with the new camera to construct a good reference image for image subtraction, our automated pipeline can start to flag supernova candidates and other transients in real time. Indeed, our first supernova discovered with one of the new "Cassius" telescopes was discovered on August 31st, 2105, and released as SN candidate ASASSN-15oz on September 3rd, 2015. ASASSN-15oz, immediately confirmed as a young Type II supernova, is not only very bright, in fact one of the brightest supernova currently seen on the sky, but it is also located in a faint host galaxy HIPASS J1919-33, only about 30 megaparsecs from us. With eight cameras fully operational ASAS-SN will be now able to cover about 20,000 square degrees each clear night, getting us that much closer to our ultimate goal of observing the entire available optical sky at least once every 24 hours.


Back to ASAS-SN page.


See previous APOWs:

Tom's poster at the 2015 DOE CSGF Annual Program Review

Tom and Ben: "Coffee Briefs" for Two Recent ASAS-SN Papers

ASAS-SN ``Unpaid Professional Collaborators'': Joe Brimacombe

Where Do Type Ia Supernova Dwell?

Bright Supernova Discoveries Statistics (Again)

ASASSN-14lp: the Brightest Supernova Currently on the Sky

ASASSN-14li: Possible Tidal Disruption Event in Progress

ASASSN-13co: Type-Defying Luminous Type II Supernova

Bright Supernova Discoveries Statistics

Bright Supernovae: ASAS-SN Contribution

Our Big Boom: ASASSN-14cl

First Light on the Small Magellanic Cloud from Chile

Congratulations to Tom and Jacob!

ASASSN-13dn: Spectra from a New Instrument

ASASSN-14ae, A Very Luminous Transient

Our Latest Paper, in Video Form

Host Galaxies of ASAS-SN Supernovae

Back in Real-Time Discovery Business!

We Have a Logo!

Active (Some Less, Some More) Galactic Nuclei with ASAS-SN

Brutus is EXPANDING!

Swift Ultraviolet and Optical Follow-Up of ASASSN-13dl, Our Latest Supernova

Dramatic AGN Outburst in NGC 2617

M81 and Friends

Two ASAS-SN Views of Orion Nebula

AAVSO Observations of Cataclysmic Variable ASASSN-13ck

Two ASAS-SN Supernovae in One Day!

It is Good to be Lucky!

Extreme M-dwarf Flare Observed by ASAS-SN;

Neptune Discovered!

Multiband photometric follow-up of ASASSN-13aw (SN 2013dr);

"Assassin" Unit 1: Brutus;

How ASAS-SN Discovers Supernovae: Case of Supernova ASASSN-13bb;

NGC 2617: Dramatic Seyfert Type Change;

ASASSN-13/SN 2013da: Our First Supernova Three Weeks Later;

M31 and Companions;


This homepage is maintained by Tom Holoien and Kris Stanek. Updated Mon Jul 27 13:53:43 EDT 2015

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