He’s a locksmith by trade, but the envy of professional astronomers the world over, because Victor Buso witnessed a supernova as it happened.
Buso is an amateur astronomer with a rooftop telescope at his home in Rosario, Argentina. He was testing a new camera with the telescope on September 20, 2016 when it captured the start of one of the most unpredictable events in the universe… a star exploding. This one in a spiral galaxy labelled NGC 613.
It was a one in a million shot, since there’s no way of knowing when a star will go supernovae.
Buso reported his photos while it was happening and other telescopes in Hawaii and Chile confirmed the continuing explosion of bright light. But what makes Buso unique…his photos started before the explosion and scientists a better look and understanding of the final stages of a star’s evolution. Not bad for an amateur.