The "Headline Reads: Scientists Await Star's Explosion!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at an artist's illustration of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze Star which appeared in my Tuesday newspaper.  Every clear night for the last three weeks, Bob Stephens has pointed his home telescope at the same two stars in hopes of witnessing one of the most violent events in the universe - a nova explosion a hundred thousand times brighter than the sun.  The eruption has excited the interest of major observatories worldwide, and it promises to advance our understanding of turbulent binary star systems.  But, it might be an amateur astronomer who will sight the anticipated explosion first.  And why is that?  Well, it's just too costly to keep equipment focused on the same subject/subjects for months at a time.  "I think everyone will look at it while it happens, but sitting there just looking at it isn't going to make it happen," said Tom Meneghini, the director of telescope operations and executive director emeritus at the Mount Wilson Observatory.  The star is so far away that it takes 3,000 years for its light to reach the Earth, meaning the explosion occurred before the last of the Egyptians pyramids were built.  It will appear about as bright as the North Star of just a few days before fading into the darkness.  Once it's spotted, some of the most advanced observatories on Earth and in space will join in watching, including NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.  T. Coronae Borealis, also called the Blaze Star, is actually two stars - a hot, dense white dwarf, and a cooler red giant.  The dwarf star, which ran out of fuel long ago and collapsed to roughly the size of Earth, has been siphoning hydrogen gas from its larger neighbor for about a human lifetime.  This stolen gas has accumulated in a disk around the dwarf like a hot, messy version of Saturn's rings.  Soon, the disk will grow so heavy that it will become violent and unwieldy, and inevitably, explode like a thermonuclear bomb.  Neither star will be destroyed however, and the process repeats itself roughly every 80 years.  This time around, there's an army of enthusiasts ready to sound the alarm when the star goes nova.  Far from mere hobbyists, a number of these amateur observers have published their own scientific research.  Stephens even built his own observatory as an addition to his house in Rancho Cucamonga.  "The city thinks it's a sunroom," Stephens said.  After the inspector stopped by, he removed the screws securing the roof, allowing him to roll it off to reveal the clear sky. to his telescope.  Every night, he turns on the telescope and spends more than an hour taking data, which he later posts to an online community of amateur astronomers who monitor the star almost nonstop.  Estimates on when the nova will occur vary, but most astrophysicists agree it will happen before the end of the year, and likely by the end of August.  Are you ready for it??  I'm not sure what to type in this story to make it happen sooner.  If you see it before I have a chance to write about it....well, I'm not sure what to tell you to do.  Just enjoy it!!  I plan to!!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.