waiting
“All good things come to those who wait,” the saying goes, according to a variation of Mary Montgomerie Lamb’s wisdom. And, gosh, I sure hope this is true.
We’re still waiting for the Blaze Star to do its thing. The recurrent nova of T Coronae Borealis brightens from about magnitude 10 to magnitude 2 roughly every 80 years, and it could happen literally any second now. That’s what skywatchers have been telling themselves for a couple of years.
Any second now.
Last night, I was on a FaceTime stargazing call with Dad. This has become our habit, for him to situate his Dwarf 3 telescope and then call me so we can enjoy his night sky together. He runs the telescope while I hunt around on Stellarium for targets, then I look up distance, discovery date, and other information about this galaxy or that nebula while his smart scope stacks images. With the magic of time zones, he’s three hours ahead of me, so the reverse set-up is less convenient — it’s the wee hours of the morning for him by the time my skies are finally dark enough for observation.
Ever since I mentioned the Blaze Star, Dad has been focused on finding and observing this recurrent nova. He’s anxious for it to go ahead and happen already. “I won’t be around for the next time,” he says. Neither will I.
The most recent “likely” eruption date was 25 June 2026. Nothing of note happened. The next likely date isn’t until February 2027 — but again, it could happen at any time. So we watch and we wait.
There’s a lot of waiting in chronic, disabled world, too. Like spending years on a waiting list for the one specialist who might be able to help — for my daily migraines and headaches, I had an intake appointment in May 2023 with a neurologist who specializes in acupuncture for head pain, and I’ve been on her waiting list to begin treatment ever since. Like waiting to hear if Medicaid will approve or deny a treatment or prescription medication that offers some hope. Waiting to find out if I will lose more or all of my coverage when additional Medicaid cuts go into effect later this year. Waiting to see if a new medicine will work for my migraines, my gut, my arthritis, or other complaints, and how bad the side effects will be. Or like logging into my Social Security Administration dashboard every morning for any update on my disability claim, for which I’ve filed reams of paperwork, was sworn in for a nerve-wracking and confusing hearing, and have been jumping through a seemingly endless series of hoops for 2.5 years.
Which, come to think of it, is about the same amount of time I’ve been watching for the Blaze Star. But I can’t make this nova flare in the sky any more than I can will the gears of bureaucracy to turn faster or in my favor.
https://flic.kr/p/2q8vWoS
TCrB will blaze to life again whether or not I have my own eyes and instruments trained on it all night every night. I could spend my time that way, if I wanted to. But there is so much more to see in the sky — just like there should be more to life than lingering in a holding pattern because I don’t know what my situation or capacity will be from one day to the next.
The cosmos is full of wonders to discover and behold, and there’s no waiting required. Even when what I want to see is hiding behind a tree or hasn’t yet risen high enough overhead, there is plenty else in the sky above to mesmerize and capture the imagination.
Dad directed his Dwarf 3 to TCrB toward the beginning of our observing session. He wanted to make sure he could find it, for when the big event occurs. We stacked a few photos to build a “before” image, for the sake of comparison later, and we talked about how cool it will be to see this once-in-a-lifetime recurrent nova for ourselves. And then we moved on to a globular cluster and a couple of late-season galaxies. The Blaze Star will be there when it’s ready for us.
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IMAGES
1. The Aurora Named STEVE, by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
2. The symbiotic star T CrB (Coronae Borealis) image/map, by Giuseppe Donatiello