A NORTHSIDE stargazer was over the moon last week after he officially became the first person in Ireland ever to discover a supernova.
Dave Grennan, from Raheny, was ecstatic after receiving official confirmation that the small blot he discovered in the early hours of September 17 from the observatory in his back yard was in fact the first Irish sighting of an exploding star supernova.
The odds of making the discovery are almost as difficult to comprehend as the distance the celestial spectacle was from the earth at a thousand, million, million, million miles away.
The thrilled and shocked amateur astronomer told Northside People how he nearly missed his chance discovery in the UGC112 galaxy on the clear and crisp night of September 17.
“I was just about to wrap up for the night as I was exhausted at about midnight when I said to myself: ‘come on Dave, how are you ever going to discover anything in bed?” he explained.

“So I programmed my telescope to photograph 100 different galaxies to see if there were any new stars to discover.
“I started looking through a few of the images until I came to the second and spotted a difference from the last time I photographed the galaxy.”
Over the last year Dave has photographed 2,611 out of the 900,000 or so known galaxies with the high-tech telescope in his observatory.
The sighting of the supernova, according to the 39-year-old, is hugely important in helping to determine the age of the earth.
However, it is not just as simple as seeing what you think is a supernova as Dave spent the following hours and days re-checking the presence of something extraordinary from all other images taken of the galaxy.
As part of another requirement, Dave sought an independent consultation from Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University in Belfast who arranged for one of the most high tech telescopes in the world to be trained on the UGC112 galaxy to confirm the existence of the supernova.
But the first supernova spotted from Irish soil didn’t become official until Monday, October 4, when the International Astronomical Union at Harvard University Boston concurred with Dave’s discovery and sent a telegram to all top and budding astronomers to announce the news.
The phenomenon has been given the official designation ‘supernova 2010 IK’ according to the time of year it was registered.
“My wife Carol and I just sat there at about 11.30 looking at news of my discovery on the telegram that had been sent worldwide,” Dave told Northside People.
“We just laughed and did a little dance around the house before cracking open a bottle of champagne.
“I just wanted the two of us to enjoy it that night but the phone began to hop.
“I’d forgotten that so many people I know would have got that telegram too.
“I’ve been buzzing ever since. The reaction has been out of this world.”
It’s thought that the star in UGC112 galaxy which Dave witnessed exploding was “stripped of its layers by another star” and could not support its own weight causing it to collapse and explode under the pressure.
However, variances in this supernova suggest that this is the first supernova of its kind to be discovered so far.
A proud and bemused Dave, who is an information security analyst with CIE by day, is only too well aware of how slim his chances were of ever discovering a supernova.
It’s estimated that a supernova will occur in each of the 900,000 galaxies no more than once every 100 years.
David Moore, chairman of Astronomy Ireland, said the supernova would only be visible with the most powerful of telescopes over the next two to three months.
“The supernova is a million, million times brighter than the sun but it’s practically invisible to the naked eye,” Mr Moore told Northside People.
“It’s absolutely extraordinary that it wasn’t picked up by all the top astronomers with the biggest and most expensive telescopes around the world.
“Dave beat all the odds having to compete against top astronomers and the Irish weather with an amateur’s telescope.
“This is the biggest thing ever discovered in Irish astronomy. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for decades.”
This is the second discovery for Raheny local Dave Grennan who discovered an asteroid – a minor planet just three metres wide, which he named Catherine Griffin after his late mother who encouraged his interest in stars when he was a boy.