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Evans is the best example of visual supernova hunter. His succeful
program with backyard telescopes began in 1980 and still continues,
although he also hunts visually with a one meter telescope at Siding Spring
Obs., Australia, and on Schmidt plates exposed by astronomers. Bob usually
makes 10.000 to 15.000 visual observations yearly on a program of some 1.000
bright and close galaxies.
Concerning his backyard search, his supernova discoveries are
located mostly in bright (magn. 10 to 13) galaxies, easily seen with
telescopes larger than 25cm (graph n. 1). Most of his discoveries are
bright supernovae in the 13-14 magn. range (graph n.2).
Bob is a master of efficiency during his observations. He spends no
more than 30 seconds on each galaxy and he has memorized background
fields around his galaxies. His success is also in part due, at least during
the '80s, to a lack of competition on southern galaxies. As a comparison
with similar visual programs see also Pesci and Mazza statistics and Wren's web
pages(external link).
Graph n.1
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Graph n.2
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