[Chaos-l] Possible Really Stupid Question

[Robert Nielsen]

OK ... I realize this might be a really stupid question ... but is there 
a new supernova in M51?

The reason I ask is that Jon Stewart-Taylor and I drove to Medoc 
Mountain State Park last night and met Allen Davis and Don Hale there.   
Around midnight, I was looking at M51 because it was basically overhead, 
and noticed a bright star in the outer edge of the arms.   I showed it 
to Allen and Jon (who were still there ... Don had gone home earlier) 
and they both saw it ... so I wasn't hallucinating.

Now that I'm back home, I took a look at some photos of M51 off the web, 
and I don't see a bright star in the position where we saw it.   There 
*might* be a bright star in the general area in some of the pictures ... 
but comparing the brightness to the other stars around it I don't think 
that is it.   It was blantantly obvious ... a very bright (what looked 
like a foreground star) in the outer arms of the galaxy.   I can't post 
pictures here (to show you the location), so I will try to describe:  
orient photos of M51 with the smaller companion up, and the "connecting" 
arm to the right.  Then the star we saw was about 7 o'clock if 12 was 
straight up ... and in the outermost visible arm (which admittedly might 
not be the real outermost arm but I think we could faintly see most of 
the galaxy).

In pictures, I think I can see some (what I would call) H II 
star-forming regions ... but like I said, those (in the pictures) seem 
to blend a little better into the glow of the arm.  This one was a very 
obvious, very distinct STAR image.

If you have a chance, and can take a look ... check out M51, and tell me 
what you see.   I might just be seeing something that is always there, 
but I don't think so.

Robert