The printed charts could be first checked at the eyepiece and then further used as reference material. Unfortunately, photographs are of limited value for the supernova hunter searching visually due to the frequent overexposure of the core of the galaxies, preventing any valuable comparison between the images and what is seen at the telescope. It is important to point out that a scale be known for your photo's, so that accurate offsets from the nucleus can be performed in the event you spot something. Verifications, Reporting Finally, it is imperative to have others available who might be able to verify any suspect what you have, either visually, or photographically discovered. The Internet communication highway is an excellent method to attempt to contact both amateur and professional alike who might share the same desire to find supernovae.
Supernova monitoring Obviously supernova monitoring is an alternative to supernova hunting.
Getting the latest discoveries from the internet and turning your telescope to the just discovered stars to monitor their evolutions is a straightforward observing programme in itself. The simplest objective for an amateur equiped with a CCD is to try to construct light curves from succesive magnitude estimates. Additional information could be gathered through some sort of collaboration with the professionals including spectrums, etc. In that respect some remarkable objects observed recently have been included in the list of images made available hereafter. The remarkable supernova in M51 in 1994.