Called Nova Dephinus 2013, a new nova (Latin for "new") was discovered Wednesday (Aug. 14) by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan, at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) in the constellation Delphinus. It has been brightening even more this week, and I had my first chance to observe it tonight. I observed from my backyard, using a pair of 10x50 binoculars. Because of the nearby waxing gibbous Moon, many of the naked eye stars were lost in the bright lunar glare, or I'm sure I would have been able to easiliy see it with my unaided eye.
The star was bright and easy to find: the arrow of Sagitta points almost directly to it! Through my binoculars, the brightness of the nova appeared to be somewhere between Eta (mag. 5.09) and Gamma Sagitta (mag. 3.5), so I estimated it to be around magnitude 4.5. It also appeared a bit yellowish-orange to me, although others have reported it as being bright white.
If you get a chance, take a peek at the "new" star before it fades away again, and let me know how it looks to you.
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