Trip to the University of London Observatory

One of many things that struck me about the trip was Francisco talking about the discovery of the supernova. As it's 11 million light years away, he said it is probably the most distant individual star we will ever see. Moreover, he said that the photographs simply didn't do justice to how stunningly bright the object was.

Amazing to think this was discovered, not by Hubble or with a telescope in Hawaii or Chile, but by an undergraduate team using a telescope right beside the A1 in north London.

As it’s 11 million light years away, he said it is probably the most distant individual star we will ever see

I did wonder about this... the thing is, I saw the supernova in M101 in August 2011 (SN 2011fe)... given that M101 is 21 million light years away, I think I can claim to have seen further!

I'm sure that there are plenty of examples of more distant supernovae that were visible to amateur telescopes.

Amazing to think this was discovered, not by Hubble or with a telescope in Hawaii or Chile, but by an undergraduate team using a telescope right beside the A1 in north London.

Absolutely agree... it's a great story, and one that ULO should be very proud of.

I think I can claim to have seen further!

You obviously went to Specsavers.

It was an interesting point, though - that while we're well used to talking about "billions and billions" (to mis-quote Carl Sagan), 11 million light years seems like it's almost next door - but that this is the sort of scale at which one has to be extremely fortunate to see an individual star that's much, much further than the stars in our naked eye night sky that are merely tens, hundreds or a few thousands of light years away.