The Night Sky Guy

Star Blows its Stack!

Astronomers around the world have their telescopes and cameras pointed to a certain corner of the late summer night sky occupied by the Sagittarius constellation. That’s because on June 26, 2012 backyard astronomers witnessed a new star that became visible within the northwest corner of the mythical archer’s stellar patten,  where none had been seen before.

While it’s still early on, experts believe it’s probably a nova – a type of erupting star that can rev up in brightness many orders of magnitude than normal. While not quite as spectacular as a supernova this one appears to be in our local galactic neighborhood, making it at least an easy target for small backyard telescopes.

To get a complete viewer’s guide to this new nova discovery with links to skycharts check out my new National Geographic article.

Bookmark