Amateur astronomer Filipp Romanov - in February 2022 - discovered the supernova SN 2022bsi
Channel: Филипп Романов астрономия Filipp Romanov astronomy
Date: 23/03/2022

My name is Filipp Romanov,  I am 24 years old, I am amateur astronomer from Russia, the discoverer (only on the basis of self-education) of 80 variable stars (and co-author of discovery of 2), 10 planetary nebulae candidates (and co-author of discovery of 5), 4 probably physical binaries pairs of stars, one supernova, 3 transients (possible supernovae), author of 3 scientific papers in astronomy, which were published in journals (in English) and co-author of a new paper published https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3fb7 in The Astrophysical Journal on February 8, 2022. Information about all my discoveries and scientific publications is available in the link: https://filipp-romanov.livejournal.com/27664.html

In February 2022, for the first time in my life I discovered a supernova which was later confirmed by the spectrum https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2022bsi — SN 2022bsi is located in the galaxy NGC 5902 (in the Boötes constellation).

There is information about this in the news publication https://www.newsweek.com/distant-supernova-discovered-homeless-amateur-astronomer-filipp-romanov-1688090 on March 15, 2022, on the Newsweek website and there is an article https://earthsky.org/todays-image/supernova-discovery-filipp-romanov/ on the site EarthSky about my discovery of this supernova.

More information: on February 9, 2022, I found a supernova candidate in the images of the CRTS (Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey) http://crts.caltech.edu/ , in the SNhunt project http://nesssi.cacr.caltech.edu/SNhunt/ . It was added https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2022bsi/discovery-cert  by the project administrator to the TNS (Transient Name Server of the International Astronomical Union) on the same date.

On February 15, 2022, I obtained (by my request, without payment, during iTelescope.Net "Free Moon happy hour") photographs of this galaxy using remote telescope T21 (0.43-m f/6.8 reflector + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer in Mayhill, New Mexico, USA) of iTelescope.Net, and I stacked these photos. This astronomical transient was clearly visible in the stacked image, indicating that it really exists; also on this date, information was added to the TNS about the detection of this SN candidate by ZTF_Bot1.

ZTF (Zwicky Transient Facility) light curve is available here https://lasair.roe.ac.uk/object/ZTF22aaajrdf/ It shows that the maximum brightness of about 19th magnitude was around February 20-21, 2022. On 2022-02-20 I obtained photos (with luminance filter, by my request; without payment, during iTelescope.Net "Free Moon happy hour") remotely using iTelescope T24 (0.61-m f/6.5 reflector + CCD in Sierra Remote Observatory at Auberry, California, USA). I am attaching https://www.flickr.com/photos/filipp-romanov/51923806193/ the stacked image (9x300 sec. with mid time 11:46 UT).

On February 28, 2022, it was confirmed as a supernova and its type has been classified https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2022bsi/classification-cert as SN Ia-91bg-like according to the result of the analysis of the spectrum that was obtained by the astronomer from Caltech, at the Palomar 60-inch (1.5m) telescope.

The past (in Aug 2020) my discovery of transient (supernova candidate) was faint (fainter than 21 mag) AT 2020quo - I found it in the Pan-STARRS images during the International Asteroid Search Campaign (IASC). But this has forever remained only in the status of an astronomical transient, because no one has obtained the spectrum of this object, but photometrically the existence of this has been confirmed by PS1_Bot1.

Also, in 2019, I discovered 2 supernova candidates on digitized photographic plates, but they won't be confirmed as supernovae, so I am glad that the supernova SN 2022bsi has been confirmed by the spectrum.

I study astronomy by self-education since 2009, but I don't have the opportunity to prepare for the study of astronomy at the university, because I don't have a place to prepare for entrance examinations, because in Russia I am (with my mother Larisa and our old cat Fanya) homeless (and I don't have access to my telescopes) for more than 5 years due to trouble in the communal apartment in Moscow, officials do not help us, about which more information is available in one of my videos and in the text description to it, and we (with chronic diseases: my mother has anemia and I, for example, have bronchial asthma and heart defect) do not have any source of income (for example, salaries, payments, benefits), and we are starving.

I, my mother and our cat are now in our small homeland - in Primorsky Krai of Russia, in a small locality (near the city of Nakhodka), in the housing where our old relatives temporarily allowed to be us, because in Moscow we even had to spend the night at the railway station in our wanderings, but we need to vacate this housing soon, but we have nowhere to go because the officials did not give us temporary housing, which we asked them in our statements-letters to them.

#supernova #discovery #astronomy