Astronomers are expecting a dazzling celestial show

On a cold February night in 1946. A 15-year-old student makes a surprising discovery when he peers out his bedroom window.

Michael Woodman, an avid amateur astronomer from Newport, stayed up late waiting for his father to come home when he noticed something strange in the night sky.

“There was the constellation Corona Borealis, but in the Corona ring the second star down was bright – very bright,” he explains.

“And I thought, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.'”

The next morning he wrote to the Astronomer Royal. The now 94-year-old smiles as he recalls the memory, surprised that his teenage self would be so bold.

“And bless me if the Astronomer Royal doesn’t answer, with a letter I still have.”

Michael Woodman witnessed a rare celestial event that briefly dazzled the heavens. Not only that, the Astronomer Royal informed him that he was the first person in the country to see this.

He had spotted a star system, about 3,000 light-years away, called T Corona Borealis – or T Cor Bor for short – exploding in brightness, becoming visible in the night sky for a few short days.

“I hit the jackpot,” he says.

Now a whole new generation of stargazers is scanning the sky again because scientists think T Cor Bor ignites around 80 years old.

On a crystal clear night in the Banaue Brihainiog Dark Sky Reserve, also known as the Brecon Beacons, astronomers set up their telescopes.

“T Cor Bor is faint right now—it’s magnitude 10, well below what you can see with the naked eye,” explains Dr. Jennifer Millard of Fifth Star Labs.

To find the area of ​​the sky where it should appear, she advises that you first find the plow and follow its handle to Arcturus. To the west of this star is the curved constellation Corona Borealis, made up of seven stars and where T Cor Bor will shine at some point.

“It will only be visible to the naked eye for a few days,” she says.

“Of course, if you have a small pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you’ll be able to see it a little longer because you have this magnifying instrument. But I think it’s the short stay in heaven that makes it really special.”

The astronomical phenomenon is caused by the interaction between two stars orbiting each other.

A small white dwarf that is a dead star is locked in a cosmic dance with a much larger red giant, a star that is reaching the end of its life.

The compact white dwarf has an enormous gravitational pull, so great that it steals material from its larger neighbor.

“The gravity on the surface of the white dwarf is a million times greater than the gravity we feel on Earth, so if we stood on it we would be crushed instantly,” explains Dr Jane Clarke of the Cardiff Astronomical Society.

Over time, the material it grabs from the other star is crushed and compressed – until it eventually causes a nuclear explosion, releasing a huge amount of energy – a process known as going nova.

“And when it does, it will shine like the prettiest Christmas tree in town,” says Dr Clarke.

Astronomers believe this process repeats itself, with an outburst from T Cor Bor occurring every 80 years.

But there isn’t much record of it. And there have already been several false alarms that T Cor Bor will appear – followed by a disappointing no-show.

But Dr Chris North of Cardiff University says astronomers around the world are poised to catch the light show, which will allow them to study this star in more detail than ever before.

And he hopes to appear soon.

“This appears to have dimmed a bit in the past before it erupted, and there are signs that maybe it’s just waning a bit in brightness right now,” he says.

“So maybe that’s a hint that it’s getting close to erupting.”

Michael Woodman sure wants to see T Cor Bor again.

“Somebody’s going to put me in a car and drive me somewhere in the wild so I can look decent.” That’s what we hope for,” he says.

And if he gets one more look at the light show, he believes it will put him in a very exclusive club – just one.

“Eighty years later, we’re all looking to the sky again, not just me, but obviously the whole world,” he says.

“If I live, if I see it, I will be the only one who has seen it twice.”

Then with a big big smile and a little laugh, he adds, “I’ve got to keep breathing!”