March 7th

There was a brief window of clear sky, so I imaged M31.
Even after only one image (600 seconds) was taken, it was clear that there was a bright transient visible.
The second image also had it, so a nova candidate was highly likely.
The usual checks were made of any known objects that could be at that location.
None were found so an announcement was posted to TNS.  Link.

The object was bright - magnitude approx 17.3



I contacted Kamil Hornoch in the Czech Republic. He had also spotted it, and some time later issued an ATEL.  Link.

YouTube video:




As the sky darkened, there was time to get a quick Moon image. Best 30% of 30 images at 0.08 seconds.





March 17th

Nova AT 2022eng now brighter at mag 16.7





March 18th

Nasa released a test image from the JWST. Exposure time 35 minutes.



The bright star is an 11 magnitude star - 2MASS-J17554042+6551277

The red colour is artificial - all images will start as monochrome.
The star is accessible in the Northern Hemisphere so I had a look with the 10 inch scope.

This is 20x5 minutes. Longer exposures were not possible due to the star being in the direction
of Birmingham, and with a nearly full Moon there was far too much light pollution.
The star is almost dead centre, with a small companion to its right.
(There is a vertical row of 5 stars - it is the middle one)



The JWST field is tiny compared to this image. I made an overlay and a video showing a direct comparison.



Only two objects apart from the test star can be seen in my image - one near the edge
of the frame, the other close to the test star. None of the many small galaxies can be seen.