January 5, 2011 by Conway

What an exciting time for Kathryn Aurora Gray, a ten-year-old Canadian girl!  On January 2, 2011, she noticed a bright spot on an image containing the galaxy UGC 3378 … a bright spot that was not there previously.  It turns out that she is now the youngest amateur astronomer to have discovered a supernova!

I am thrilled that amateur astronomers can make such significant discoveries.  Anyone with a decent telescope can look up at the night sky to view interesting phenomena.  Almost anyone can join in the cosmic treasure hunt.  And every so often, with a little discipline and more than a little luck, one of the participants may be rewarded by noticing something that no one else has seen yet.

If you don’t have a telescope and would like to participate in real astronomical research, check out www.galaxyzoo.org, an interactive project to classify millions of galaxies.