Galaxy Zoo: Supernova is back

After a couple of trial runs in August and October, the hunt for supernovae is now back – and we need your help again! As before, we’re supporting the Palomar Transient Factory in their search for supernovae, and we have an upcoming observing run, this time at the Palomar 200in telescope.

We are hoping to keep the supernova hunt website up for good now – no more trials! – and so no danger of you being cut off in a few days time.

A few pieces of news from the supernova hunt.

The first is that we would have been back sooner, but Palomar, the observatory at which PTF operates, has suffered unusual atmospheric conditions following the forest fires in Southern California over the summer. A build-up of ash and dust in the atmosphere has meant the number of nights on which the observatory has been open has been greatly reduced, and so the supernova search has been offline for much of the Autumn. Even now, the conditions are still unstable, so please bear with us if the number of candidates is very small!

The second is that in the near future we will have a website containing feedback on the classifications that you’ve all been doing. We’re also in the process of writing a scientific paper on the trial runs from earlier in the year.

Finally, we are planning to add other supernova searches to the hunt – so watch this space for more data.

That’s all for now. Good luck with the supernova hunting, and don’t forget to post questions or comments over in the forum!