Supernovae 2011dh

Tuesday evening, June 14, 2011, I took the 5″ ETX125PE out in the backyard for a look at the supernova. I was using my 13mm eyepiece for a magnification of 146x and a true field-of-view of 0.57 degrees. In town, with all the light pollution and the moon two days before full and near by, I could only see M51 with averted vision occasionally. While looking at M51, there was a very dim star that could be seen only with averted vision within M51. At first I thought that I couldn’t tell if it was a field star or the supernovae but I was reminded that the supernovae was the brightest star in the immediate area. Since the supernovae at magnitude 12.9 is brighter than all the field stars, I guess that I actually saw SN 2011dh.The next brightest field star near the SN is magnitude 13.35 and just east of the SN. There is also a magnitude 13.6 star just west of M51’s core. Since I only saw one field star in M51 and the SN is the brightest, I guess that means I found it. I can’t believe it, I’ll just have to wait till next week when the moon isn’t up so I can verify it. Heres hopping for clear skies.