M95!

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/19/breaking-possible-supernova-in-nearby-spiral-m95

I was watching Cosmos the other day. In the episode, Carl Sagan talked about Kepler and Brahe. Aside from both their respective genius, they had another thing in common: the luck of witnessing supernovae. It was discussed briefly in class about how we were due for one, then BAM! M95!

In 1572 when Brahe observed a supernova, it was still held that the universe beyond the Moon was unchanging. For a new "star" to appear was inconceivable. Surely this new bright spot in the sky would have to be between the Earth and the Moon. However, Brahe noticed that there was no daily parallax of this new object. This meant that it was not only farther away than the Moon, but it was not even within our solar system. Indeed, the SN 1572 as it was later to be named, was 7500 light years away from Earth.

In 1604, a mere 32 years after SN 1572, Kepler saw a supernova of his own (so unfair!). Like Brahe, he too noticed a lack of parallax, furthering the notion of the heavens as being able to change. Both SN 1572 and SN 1604 occurred within our galaxy, and were able to be seen with the naked eye, with magnitudes of -4 and -2.5 respectively (this would mean SN 1572 was almost four times as bright!)

Unfortunately M95 is not within our galaxy (it's about 30 million light years away) and will likely never be visible with the naked eye. Right now M95 has a magnitude of about 13, and our eyes can only detect down to a magnitude of 6. The good news is, you won't need a fancy telescope to see it. Just about any home telescope will work, just point it at Mars and it'll be within half a degree. Happy viewing!