The Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS) is conducted by astronomers from Australia and New Zealand since mid 2008 to search for new supernovae in the southern hemisphere. [2] In 2022 the group won the Astronomical Society of Australia's Page Medal [3] for having found around 200 confirmed supernovas. [4] [5] [6]
| SN Name | Host Galaxy | Date | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| AT2021xtf | PGC64029 | 2021-09-03 | 16.8 |
| AT2021skl | ESO297-G16 | 2021-06-25 | 16.7 |
| SN2021Itk | IC4367 | 2021-05-21 | 17.6 |
| AT2021gfp | ESO42-G14 | 2021-03-18 | 18.8 |
| AT2020kbv | ESO184-G64 | 2020-05-16 | 18.5 |
| AT2020jvs | NGC642 | 2020-05-13 | 15.9 |
| SN2020cdr | ESO119-13 | 2020-02-09 | 17.3 |
| SN2019mhm | NGC6753 | 2019-08-02 | 16.6 |
| SN2019icv | IC5186 | 2019-06-24 | 16 |
| SN2019has | PGC133907 | 2019-06-07 | 15.9 |
| SN2019hsa | NGC7038 | 2018-11-01 | 16.0 |
| AT2018hmy | ESO-124-G-18 | 2018-10-21 | 16.8 |
| SN2018ecf | PGC50325 | 2018-07-23 | 16.5 |
| SN2018dfg | NGC5468 | 2018-07-10 | 17.8 |
| SN2018ctw | ESO-297-G-36 | 2018-06-21 | 17.4 |
| SN2018bta | ESO-101-G-20 | 2018-05-17 | 16.4 |
| SN2018bbv | ESO-68-G-13 | 2018-04-25 | 17.1 |
| AT2018bbI | NGC7421 | 2018-04-24 | 17.4 |
| AT2018vv | ESO-158-G-7 | 2018-02-08 | 18 |
| SN2017ixh | NGC2297 | 2017-12-15 | 17 |
| SN2017hxt | PGC128734 | 2017-11-08 | 17.1 |
| SN2017hbj | ESO-084-G-020 | 2017-10-03 | 16 |
| SN2017ggw | ESO-246-G-21 | 2017-08-22 | 17.9 |
| AT2017fus | ESO-464-G12 | 2017-07-29 | 18 |
| AT2017fqz | ESO-267-IG-041 | 2017-07-25 | 16.5 |
| SN2017ezd | ESO-339-G-009 | 2017-06-17 | 16.9 |
| AT2017ewu | ESO-104-G-003 | 2017-06-19 | 17.7 |
| AT2017ewt | IC2103 | 2017-06-20 | 16.8 |
| AT2017eoc | ESO-215-G-037 | 2017-06-08 | 17.1 |
| AT2017dgg | NGC1500 | 2017-04-21 | 17.9 |
| SN2016adj | NGC5128 | 2016-02-08 [7] | 14 |
| AT2015cr | ESO-596-G-10 | 2015-07-19 | 18 |
| AT2017cet | NGC922 | 2017-03-15 | 16.2 |
| SN2017caw | PGC22822 | 2017-03-08 | 18.0 |
| SN2017bzc | NGC7552 | 2017-03-07 | 12.8 |
| SN2017bzb | NGC7424 | 2017-03-07 | 13.0 |
| SN2017acd | PGC612475 | 2017-02-02 | 17.3 |
| SN2017iye | NGC2466 | 2016-12-19 | 17.4 |
| AT2017iro | ESO 200-G-054 | 2016-12-03 | 18.5 |
Centaurus A is a galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia. There is considerable debate in the literature regarding the galaxy's fundamental properties such as its Hubble type and distance. NGC 5128 is one of the closest radio galaxies to Earth, so its active galactic nucleus has been extensively studied by professional astronomers. The galaxy is also the fifth-brightest in the sky, making it an ideal amateur astronomy target. It is only visible from the southern hemisphere and low northern latitudes.
The Perth Observatory is the name of two astronomical observatories located in Western Australia (WA). In 1896, the original observatory was founded in West Perth on Mount Eliza overlooking the city of Perth. Due to the city's expansion, the observatory moved to Bickley in 1965. The new Perth Observatory is sometimes referred to as Bickley Observatory.
Leuschner Observatory, originally called the Students' Observatory, is an observatory jointly operated by the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The observatory was built in 1886 on the Berkeley campus. For many years, it was directed by Armin Otto Leuschner, for whom the observatory was renamed in 1951. In 1965, it was relocated to its present home in Lafayette, California, approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of the Berkeley campus. In 2012, the physics and astronomy department of San Francisco State University became a partner.
Bryan Malcolm Gaensler is an Australian astronomer based at the University of Toronto. He studies magnetars, supernova remnants, and magnetic fields. In 2014, he was appointed as Director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, after James R. Graham's departure. He is currently the co-chair of the Canadian 2020 Long Range Plan Committee with Pauline Barmby.
Robert Owen Evans, OAM is a minister of the Uniting Church in Hazelbrook, New South Wales and an amateur astronomer who holds the record for visual discoveries of supernovae (42).
Robert P. Kirshner is an American astronomer, Chief Program Officer for Science for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Clownes Research Professor of Science at Harvard University. Kirshner has worked in several areas of astronomy including the physics of supernovae, supernova remnants, the large-scale structure of the cosmos, and the use of supernovae to measure the expansion of the universe.
The known history of supernova observation goes back to 185 AD, when supernova SN 185 appeared; which is the oldest appearance of a supernova recorded by mankind. Several additional supernovae within the Milky Way galaxy have been recorded since that time, with SN 1604 being the most recent supernova to be observed in this galaxy.
Nicholas B. Suntzeff is an American University Distinguished Professor and holds the Mitchell/Heep/Munnerlyn Chair of Observational Astronomy in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Texas A&M University where he is Director of the Astronomy Program. He is an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology, supernovae, stellar populations, and astronomical instrumentation. With Brian Schmidt he founded the High-z Supernova Search Team, which was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 to Schmidt and Adam Riess.
Mark M. Phillips (born March 31, 1951) is an American astronomer who works on the observational studies of all classes of supernovae. He has worked on SN 1986G, SN 1987A, the Calán/Tololo Supernova Survey, the High-Z Supernova Search Team, and the Phillips relationship. This relationship has allowed the use of Type Ia supernovae as standard candles, leading to the precise measurements of the Hubble constant H0 and the deceleration parameter q0, the latter implying the existence of dark energy or a cosmological constant in the Universe.
William Ashley Bradfield was a New Zealand-born Australian amateur astronomer, notable as a prolific amateur discoverer of comets. He gained a world record by discovering 18 comets, all of which bear his name as the sole discoverer.
Puckett Observatory is a private astronomical observatory located in the state of Georgia. It is owned and operated by Tim Puckett. Its primary observation goals are the study of comets and the discovery of supernovae. To facilitate the latter goal it sponsors the Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search whose astronomers have discovered 369 supernovae.
Sutherland Astronomical Society Incorporated (SASI) is an amateur astronomical society based in the Sutherland Shire, in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It operates the Green Point Observatory, it is one of the two founding organizations of the National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers, and its members have discovered two comets and two novae.
Jennie Margaret McCormick, FRASNZ is a New Zealand amateur astronomer and asteroid discoverer who conducts astronomical research from the Farm Cove Observatory in Auckland. She discovered the asteroid officially named New Zealand and has contributed to and been involved in a range of organisations and events to promote astronomy. McCormick has published in several journals and won awards for her contributions to astronomy.
Ragbir BhathalFRSN, FRAS, FSAAS is an Australian astronomer and author, currently based at the Western Sydney University (WSU), Australia. He is known for his work on Optical Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (OSETI). He did his Ph.D. in magnetism at the University of Queensland. He has served as a UNESCO consultant on science policy for the ASEAN group of nations, as an Adviser to the Federal Minister for Science and was the Project Director for the million dollar Sydney Observatory restoration building program. Bhathal also designed and built the twin dome Campbelltown Rotary Observatory at the WSU Campbelltown Campus and was Patron of Macarthur Astronomical Society from 1997 to 2011.
The Astronomical Society of New South Wales (ASNSW) is an amateur astronomy club in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was founded in 1954 and it has over 400 members.
NGC 428 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, with its spiral structure distorted and warped, possibly the result of the collision of two galaxies. There appears to be a substantial amount of star formation occurring within NGC 428 and lacks well defined arms — a telltale sign of a galaxy merger. In 2015 the Hubble Space Telescope made a close-up shot of the galaxy with its Advanced Camera for Surveys and its Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The structure of NGC 428 has been compared to NGC 5645.
SN 2018cow was a very powerful astronomical explosion, 10–100 times brighter than a normal supernova, spatially coincident with galaxy CGCG 137-068, approximately 200 million ly (60 million pc) distant in the Hercules constellation. It was discovered on 16 June 2018 by the ATLAS-HKO telescope, and had generated significant interest among astronomers throughout the world. Later, on 10 July 2018, and after AT 2018cow had significantly faded, astronomers, based on follow-up studies with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), formally described AT 2018cow as SN 2018cow, a type Ib supernova, showing an "unprecedented spectrum for a supernova of this class"; although others, mostly at first but also more recently, have referred to it as a type Ic-BL supernova. An explanation to help better understand the unique features of AT 2018cow has been presented. AT2018cow is one of the few reported Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs) observed in the Universe. In May 2020, however, a much more powerful FBOT than AT2018cow was reportedly observed.
Nidia Irene Morrell is an Argentine astronomer who is a permanent staff member at the Las Campanas Observatory in La Serena, Chile. She was a member of the Massive Stars research group led by Virpi Niemelä and the Hubble Heritage Project. Professionally, she is known for her numerous contributions related to the astrophysics of massive stars. She participates in the systematic search for variations of brightness in stellar objects, including the observation of a candidate for the Thorne–Żytkow object. She was also a member of the team that discovered the supernova ASASSN-15lh.
John Caister "Jack" Bennett, was a South African civil servant and amateur astronomer. His mother was British and his father was from Tasmania. He attended school in Ficksburg and began to work in public service after graduating in 1934, initially in the forestry administration in Elgin before moving to the administration of Transvaal Province in Pretoria. During World War II he served as a soldier in South Africa, Egypt and Italy. In 1974 he retired from the public service. From 1985 he began to suffer from arthritis and soon afterwards his health deteriorated so much that he had to sell his house in Pretoria's Riviera neighborhood and move into a nursing home. He died on 30 May 1990 at the age of 76.