I captured a very rare astronomical event - a recurrent nova outburst! This nova is visible to the naked eye currently in the constellation Ophiuchus, but will not last long as the brightness diminishes over the next few days. This is an unpredictable/sudden thermonuclear explosion on the small star Rs Oph which last occurred in 2006. I got lucky with clear skies the night after the outburst was observed.

Captured at ~mag +4.7 from Charlottesville, VA. 0430-0500 UTC, naked eye object from Bortle 5.

Canon Rebel t6, Sigma 100-400mm lens
84 sec at f/7, iso 800, 100mm
Sky Watcher Star Adventurer Pro 2i tracker

Stacked 5x frames in Sequator, image flattened, noise reduced, and annotated in Adobe Photoshop.