On July 8, 2026, Patrick Wiggins discovered a new supernova in NGC 3310, a grand-design starburst spiral about 50 million light-years away in Ursa Major. It was quickly classified as a Type II — the core collapse of a massive star — and brightened to around magnitude 13, an easy target for a backyard telescope. Two days later, on the evening of July 10, I set up at sunset and grabbed it before the sky was even properly dark.
The supernova is the bright point of light just outside the galaxy’s disk, about half an arcminute from the nucleus:
With twilight still washing out the sky there was only time for a short run — eight one-minute frames, stacked. It’s not a deep image, but that’s the fun of supernova chasing: the target is new. The light in these frames left NGC 3310 before grass existed on Earth, and the star it came from no longer does.
Both renders (labeled and normal) are in the gallery folder, and the image is on AstroBin.
Acquisition details
- Published: Jul 11, 2026
- Total integration: 8m — LRGB chroma filter, 8 × 60″ (AstroBin lists it as “no filter”, a limitation of its equipment database)
Equipment
- Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25″
- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- Mount: Sky-Watcher Wave 150i strain-wave mount
- Software: N.I.N.A., PHD2, Green Swamp Server, PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom Classic