Supernova SN2023IXF

First reports of this Type II supernova were published on May 19th 2023 by Koichi Itagaki, a Japanese amateur astronomer accredited with discoveries of 3 supernovae – there’s hope for us all yet.

This supernova is in the M101 “Pinwheel” galaxy and is due to the collapse of a star at least 8 times the mass of the sun.

This important event was caught beautifully by Mark Tweedie using an F12 scope – great work Mark!