Spark and Perl go looking
Is it doing anything?
No.
Was it doing anything yesterday?
No.
Then why do you keep looking?
Because every few weeks it flares a hundred times brighter, and not one person alive can tell you which week.
People like us are the ones who catch it.
So we look.
Then there is no point looking on a night like this one.
Somebody has to look.
…If everybody waits to be told it went off, nobody is watching when it does.
The looking on the boring nights is the whole job.
That is why they need us.
Yes, if it is having one of its nights.
Nobody knows when — which is exactly the reason to go out and check.
You can see this from almost anywhere — but not the very far south.
Where to find SS Cygni, and when
Where the Earth is clear, it climbs high in the sky. The darker it gets, the lower it stays. Where it is black, it never comes up. No shading at all: it does not matter where you live.
What do I need to see SS Cygni?
Binoculars with 10× magnification show it, if you rest them on a fence or a wall.
A 150 mm telescope does not make it better — this is about comparing brightness, not about magnification.
Space
Eyes, binoculars, or telescope?
Read on
Go and look