Hobbyist astronomer finds four supernovas, first for Poland

Jarosław Grzegorzek, amateur astronomer from Szczecin, discovered 4 supernovas from his little observatory. The latest one was discovered on the 9th of January 2016.

The place, where the supernovas’ discovery took place, is very inconspicuous and looks like a garden shed. However, don’t be misled by appearances. The building’s roof is moveable and you can use the telescope from inside. Sky observation equipment is of medium-class but there have been great things that can be discoreved by using it. As Grzegorzek says, telescopes from abroad are sometimes 10 times more expensive.

What are supernovas?

The man is the first in Poland to discover supernovas using a telescope. But what are these things, actually?

Supernovas are explosive stars which explode at the end of their lives – explains our astronomist-hobbyist. – If the supernova exploded in our galaxy, we would see it during the day. If it exploded too close, it would mean the end of our civilisation. Fortunately, the supernovas we observe are very far away – 200, 300, 400 million light years from us, in the far galaxies. You could say that the supernovas I have been observing exploded in the times of dinosaurs and their light has only just reached us now.

A demanding hobby

This space hobby requires a lot of effort and time. In order to discover 1 supernova, you have to take thousands of pictures.

I take a session and analyse these pictures by looking for the anomalies in the far galaxies’ appearance. There’s quite a lot of these pictures because you have to analyse around 10 thousand pictures in order to discover a supernova.
– Grzegorzek

First such discovery in Poland

These are the first supernova discoveries from a Polish observatory. Poles had discovered them earlier but while abroad, says Grzegorzek.
The astronomist-hobbyist discovered his first supernova in October 2014 in galaxy UGC 12137. The latest one was discovered on the 9th of January 2016 in galaxy NGC 1171.

Without a huge number of friends on Facebook and many space pictures and links, there can be no doubt of Jarosław’s commitment to astronomy.