Giant exploding star outshines previous supernovas

Would be pretty nice to see. I know they say that there was one somewhat close to Earth (In universe distance) a long time ago but was there any that were close enough to see with a low powered telescope in the past?

www.cnn.com...

I'm waiting for Eta Carinae to go hypernova, I just hope it happens in my lifetime.

From your link:

Astronomers say the star that became SN 2006gy expelled a large amount of its mass before it exploded. A huge star in the Milky Way, Eta Carinae, has already erupted in a similar fashion. So if it explodes as a supernova, it could present the best light show seen, because it is a mere 7,500 light years away from our planet.

If Eta Carinae goes off we'll be able to see it during the day, it should be that bright.

Eta Carinae is one of the most massive stars in the universe, with probably more than 100 solar masses (Jeff Hester of the ASU, who made this HST image, has estimated 150 times the mass of our sun, Robert Zimmermann gives 120 solar masses in his article in Astronomy, Feb. 2000 issue). It is about 4 million times brighter than our local star, making it also one of the most luminous stars known. Eta Carinae radiates 99 % of its luminosity in the infrared part of the spectrum, where it is the brightest object in the sky at 10-20 microns wavelength.
seds.org...

This is sitting in our proverbial back yard, and appears to be so massive that it absolutely has to go off with a bang, and soon.

Could you imagine a huge bright star in the sky during the day.
I wonder how long something like that would last in the sky ?

[edit on 7/5/2007 by anxietydisorder]