A week after exploding in the spiral arm of the Vertushka galaxy (M101), the new supernova SN 2023ixf has finally reached a brightness peak of +11. It turns out to be bright enough to see from the center of London.
“The supernova was clearly visible in my telescope despite the bright city lights,” reports Terence Murtagh.
“I had great views of the supernova through my EVscope Equinox 2,” he says.
SN 2023ixf is a Type II supernova resulting from the collapse of the core of a massive star. The shockwave erupted from the dying star on May 19 (Earth time), creating a 15th magnitude fireball, first seen by Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan.
Since then, the expanding fireball has become 40 times brighter to a magnitude of +11. It is too dim to see with the naked eye, but as seen in Murtagh’s photo, the supernova is an easy target for amateur telescopes, even in urban areas.