Recurrent Novae Star T CrB: Now Is The Time To Be Watching For The Predicted Outburst
For those waiting and watching for the predicted outburst of recurrent novae star, T Corona Borealis, the excitement is building, but no one knows when the event will happen.
I’ve been making photos of the constellation Corona Borealis as often as possible since last summer, using my phone with 3-second exposures. This way I’ll have a before and after photo of the constellation. After the outburst, there will be the appearance of a “new star” in the constellation, visible without optical aid.
The recurrent novae star could become as bright or even brighter than Alpha Corona Borealis (Alphecca) which is ~2.2 magnitude. However, the brightness will be brief, lasting only a couple weeks at best, before the star begins fading out of sight…going back to sleep for another 80 years.
For reference, Polaris has an apparent magnitude that fluctuates around 2.0 and is the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor and easily visible naked eye from a bright suburban sky.
The last outburst was February 9th 1946: Renowned variable star observer, Leslie Peltier missed the event due to an illness and went back to bed, which was a mistake. His planned observation was to begin at 2:30 AM.
In his book Starlight Nights,Peltier writes:
“I alone am to blame for being remiss in my duties, nevertheless, I still have the feeling that T could have shown me more consideration. We had been friends for many years; on thousands of nights I had watched over it as it slept, and then it arose in my hour of weakness as I nodded at my post. I still am watching it but now it is with a wary eye. There is no warmth between us any more.”
I made the following photos: Friday, January 16th 2026, at 5:20 AM. The temperature was a cold 15º F with some variable high clouds. The constellation Corona Borealis was in excellent sky position, high in the eastern sky. I’ll continue to add my latest photos to this post.
Note: Recurrent novae star T cannot be seen in the following iPhone photos, but after the outburst, will “most likely” be the brightest star in the constellation.
The following chart will be helpful when observing the recurrent nova star with a telescope and watching for magnitude fluctuations.
The following excerpts are from a “Sky & Telescope” online article.
Take T Coronae Borealis (T CrB). It’s one of only about 10 stars in the entire sky classified as a recurrent nova, with two recorded outbursts to its name. Normally, the star slumbers at 10th magnitude, but on May 12, 1866, it hit the roof, reaching magnitude +2.0 and outshining every star in Corona Borealis before quickly fading back to obscurity. Eighty years later, on February 9, 1946, it sprang back to life, topping out at magnitude +3.0.
In his book Starlight Nights, Peltier writes:
“I alone am to blame for being remiss in my duties, nevertheless, I still have the feeling that T could have shown me more consideration. We had been friends for many years; on thousands of nights I had watched over it as it slept, and then it arose in my hour of weakness as I nodded at my post. I still am watching it but now it is with a wary eye. There is no warmth between us any more.”
T stayed under the radar for the next 69 years, holding steady around magnitude +10.2–10.3. That began to change in February 2015, when it inched up to +10.0 and remained there until early February this year. That’s when things kicked into high gear with the star steadily growing brighter from late winter through early spring to reach its current magnitude of ~9.2.
Alongside the brightening trend, T’s become bluer as well. Astronomers describe its recent unprecedented activity as a star entering a “super active” state. This last happened in 1938, eight years before its last great outburst.
NASA
T CrB has two components: a red giant star in a close, 227-day orbit with a planet-sized white dwarf. Material spills from the giant and accumulates in an accretion disk around the dwarf. Some of that gas gets funneled down to the dwarf’s surface, becomes compacted and heated, and eventually ignites in a spectacular thermonuclear explosion. We see the results as a sudden brightening of the star.
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