T Corona Borealis – The Jewel in the Crown

‘Nova Corona Borealis 1866 was the first Nova to have its spectrum examined.  Eighty years later in 1946 the Nova erupted again, causing great excitement.  Now, after a further eighty years of observations in all wavelengths, we eagerly await the next eruption.  This is the story of its discovery in 1866 and 1946, and what we might expect to see in the next Nova event.’

Gary Poyner

First telescope for my 7th birthday in 1965, and have been observing ever since – concentrating on Variable Stars (especially Cataclysmic stars) for the past 50 years.  BAA Variable Star Section Director from 1995-1999. Variable Star editor of ‘The Astronomer’ magazine for 18 years up to 2019. Served on the editorial board for the’ Open European Journal for Variable Stars’. Current BAAVSS Assistant Director,  Circular editor and Cataclysmic Variable Star co-ordinator and web manager.  I run CVnet (Cataclysmic Variable Network), for distributing observations and alerts worldwide. AAVSO Directors award in 2003,  BAA’s Steavensons award recipient in 2000 and Walter Goodacre award and medal recipient in 2020.  Visual observations from North Birmingham with a 0.5-m reflector, and CCD photometry using AAVSOnetwork telescopes in Arizona and New Mexico, Open University COAST and PIRATE telescopes in Tenerife, and SLOOH telescopes in Tenerife, Chile and Australia.    Current member of Heart of England AS and Bromsgrove AS, past president of Wolverhampton AS.  Absolute highlight – appearing on Sky at night in 2012 and spending the weekend at Farthings!