By Mark Blunsum | 2026-04-27
Supernova SN2026fvx in galaxy NGC 4205
On 04/27/2026 11:00 pm by Steven Bellavia | Website | Smithfield, VA
Over 60 million years ago, a star exploded in NGC 4205, a distant galaxy in the boundaries of the constellation Draco.
The light from that explosion has been travelling at 300,000 Km (186,000 miles) every second, arriving at Earth on April 7th, 2026, and detected by the ATLAS sky survey.
A plate solve of the image shows the nearby star, which is in our own galaxy, as magnitude 13 (think of the stars in our galaxy like pressing your face against a window screen while looking at something very far away. The stars are the distance of that screen). The supernova is currently magnitude 14, essentially brighter than all the stars of that galaxy, combined.
This is a Type Ia supernova, which is used to calculate distances. I have seen varying data on its distance, ranging from 50 million to 110 million light years.
I am sure once they have the light curves for this supernova, a more accurate distance will be calculated for the supernova and its host galaxy.
TS-Photoline 115mm triplet apochromatic refractor
ZWO ASI 533 MC pro camera
SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro equatorial mount
The best 49 of 60 x 180 second images, calibrated, registered and integrated in PixInsight using flats, dark-flats and dark frames for calibration