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About 12 to 15 light years away in the "Hamburger" galaxy lies a very bright supernova discovered by a man from Loganholme.
By day Peter Marples works for Suncorp Insurance, but by night he turns his gaze towards the stars.
When the sun sets and the night is clear Mr Marples can be found in his custom tool shed, with a roof that rolls off, using his telescope to find the biggest things in the universe, supernova.
Mr Marples collaborates with five other backyard astronomers and collectively they have discovered more than 140 supernovae over the last eight years, many of which can be found on the online forum Ice in Space.
He said this discovery was significant because of the galaxy's location and visibility.
"It's a very close galaxy, it's a very bright galaxy, it's certainly one of the showpieces in the sky and to have it in the southern sky is just amazing," Mr Marples said.
"Unfortunately it's occurred next to a much brighter star, so it makes it very difficult if not impossible for someone with an average telescope to identify it."
Through a process of elimination and overlaying images he was able to separate the supernova from the mess of stars that is the universe.
For this discovery to be possible Mr Marples had to rely on one variable, Brisbane weather, particularly after a rainy weekend camping trip with his family.
"At this time of year we were very fortunate that the other evening, when it was discovered, we had clear and stable weather.
"I got the telescope operating on the Monday it was such an amazing opportunity to have a clear sky."
Their discoveries have led to them making connections with professionals at Harvard University and in Chile that are studying supernova.
"Some of the work we have done has actually contributed to the science of supernova and understanding what has happened."
This is not the first time that Mr Marples and the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search team have received recognition for their discoveries.
In 2008 Mr Marples had a minor planet named after him by the same organisation that removed Pluto's title as a planet in our solar system.
"It was named after me courtesy of a gentleman in Japan, when I made my first supernova discovery in 2008," Mr Marples said.
The Japanese man, Mr I. Makino, suggested Peter Marples as a namesake for a minor planet to the now-deceased astronomer Takeshi Urata, who passed the recommendation over to the International Astronomic Union.
The draw for Mr Marples' passion in searching the cosmos is as simple as wanting to discover something.
"You could walk in to a forest and discover a tree, so what, but in this case were talking about stuff that has actually shaped who we are, it's because of supernovae that we are here."
It all started when he was eight years old, not watching Dr Who but watching a British show called The Sky at Night. From then, he was hooked.
