Supernova?

[pandoraefretum]

Did I just witness a supernova? 

I am on holiday in Kefalonia Greece. Unfortunately the Moon is in the way during most of my stay. However on my second night I observed moonless from 3 to 4 am. I have leica 10x50 and a 4" reflector with me which can go up to x66 magnification. Firstly the milky way around sagittarius was spectacular.. It really felt like looking into the centre of our galaxy.. The milky way looked like one of those long exposure Wide angle photos and the shape of the central galactic bulge was obvious. I was looking at M22 in binoculars and was very puzzled to see how large this beast is compared to M13 in my 10x50s. I spent the better part of an hour hour on M22 with the telescope. It looked like a globular with criss Cross lines all over it and individual stars detected with averted vision techniques. At a certain stage just before packing up feeling very sleepy I may have been scanning capricornus in binoculars maybe around Algedi.. maybe I was still in Sagittarius.. Suddenly I saw a mag 3 star flare up to mag 1 possibly brighter then disappear.. which means mag 10 or dimmer.. All in the space of 1 second. My first thought was a satellite flare but there had been no movement of the star in question. It definitely remained still from start to finish.. The date was 12th July 2019 around 4am GMT +3.. I only told my wife today because I thought what I saw was so fantastical it could not possibly have really happened. But it did! Anyone else saw it or have an opinion? 

[Stu]

The profile of a supernova ie the light curve rises and falls over a period of days or weeks, not flashing in an instant.  I suspect what you saw was either a tumbling satellite or perhaps a head on meteor?

[barkis]

Fast radio bursts have been in the news lately.  They display a split second burst of energy, and a bright flare. I couldn't possibly state that what you saw was FRB.  Bit then again, I could not discount it either.

Ron.

[Chris]

As said, too fast short a flash to be an SN event. I remember the SN in m82 a few years back and it was bright for many days even maybe a week or so.