Supernovae are among the most violent events in the universe — and with a modest telescope or smart scope, you can see them yourself.

When a new supernova is discovered, we’ll post a finding chart and images so you can point your scope at it. Your observation matters: amateur data has directly contributed to supernova science, as SN 2023ixf in M101 showed when backyard imagers captured the explosion within hours of it happening.

You never know when a routine image or observation of a galaxy might catch something extraordinary.