Preface: The following paragraph in from the latest DISPATCHES post....but I wanted to bring it front for a day since it is new:
It has been a wild year for stargazing....highlighted by the total solar eclipse....and the year is not over. They are calling it a once-in-a-lifetime viewing experience. Two distant stars....in our Milky Way....in the constellation Corona Borealis....one larger and cool....the other smaller and hot....will in effect....'collide'....with the explosion being so bright that for a while it will look like a new star was created....appearing as bright as the North Star....visible just by looking into the heavens. This happens in the Corona Borealis about once every 79 years or so....so it is predictable. The last one was in 1946. The latest may be this year....possibly next year....but no later than 2026. To make it even a little more interesting....a brightening is first noticed about eight years previous to the explosion....but a slight dimming usually occurs before the big explosion. In the previous Blaze Star as it is sometimes called....brightness began in 1938....dimmed...and exploded in 1946. This current brightness was noticed in 2015....dimmed in mid-2023....indicating that it is about to 'explode'.....thus for a time appearing to be a new star.
