The Night I Found...
Wayne Johnson talked about his six supernova discoveries. Two discoveries actually occurred in one night! Wayne explained that we are all here because of supernovae explosions, the breeding ground for elements heavier than iron. Supernovae are also used as "standard candles," a method in which our expanding universe was determined to be accelerating.

...Two Supernovae
Galaxies do not change much, at least from the perspective of human lifetimes. However, stars explode all the time. It is estimated that a star explodes somewhere in the universe about once every second. Put another way, a supernova will occur about once every fifty years in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way. However, if a supernova were to occur in our own galaxy, we still might not be able to see it, due to all the intervening dust that obscures our view. In fact, if all of the obscuring dust were removed, the center of the Milky Way would be brighter than the sun.

Wayne also covered the different types of supernovae. He went on to discuss various resources that are available on the Web to help with verifying possible discoveries. Knowing how to use these resources effectively can play a crucial role when a new discovery needs to be verified and reported. The PowerPoint slide show is available for download in PDF format (see the link, below). It contains many details on how to discover supernovae and how to report a supernova discovery.

The Big Three: M31, M33, and The M.W.
A supernovae-hunting tip: Keep an eye on M31 and M33, and even our own Milky Way for the next big one! Maybe you can discover three supernovae in a single night?

 Mr. Galaxy’s Supernova Discoveries (PDF, 586 KB)

Mr. Galaxy’s Supernova Pages