Observing supernovas

[Swithin StCleeve]

Tonight I pulled out an old observation notebook, my first in fact. I was surprised to see, in an entry from April 21st 1993, I've noted I saw a supernova. I've written supernova M81 found, same magnitude as other stars, forming a triangle. And there's this rough sketch of a triangle of stars and an arrow pointing to one, showing it as the supernova. 
This has really surprised me, as I'd completely forgotten I'd seen it, and would have sworn I'd never seen a supernova. 
How rare is it to visually observe a supernova? 
In my drawing, it seems like it's not actually in M81, but of course, it'd be in the spiral arms, which I'd not be able to pick up from my urban observing site.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Swithin StCleeve
Punctuation

[John]

There have been quite a few over the past few years that have been visible in amateur scopes. I've observed about 10 I think. Here is the current list of the brightest:

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

Nothing above magnitude 14 just now. I think the one in M82 in early 2014 was the brightest that I've seen - magnitude 10.5 at it's peak.

The last one in our galaxy was over 400 years ago. Perhaps we are due another ?

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by John

[Swithin StCleeve]

Thanks for that. Looks like they're more common than I thought then. I'll check that link out, one more supernova and I'll double my count!

[Marki]

On 26/02/2021 at 22:16, John said:

There have been quite a few over the past few years that have been visible in amateur scopes. I've observed about 10 I think. Here is the current list of the brightest:

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

Nothing above magnitude 14 just now. I think the one in M82 in early 2014 was the brightest that I've seen - magnitude 10.5 at it's peak.

The last one in our galaxy was over 400 years ago. Perhaps we are due another ?

 

I remember that one. My note book has a record for 10th Feb 2014  - "Got to see the Type 1a (?) super nova in M82, SN2014J, magntitude between 11 and 10. Fantastic to think what force that explosion in a galaxy 12 million LYS away represents for us to see it so bright here".

I don't think I've been lucky enough to see one since (at least, not one I recorded in my notes).