Actually spotted within hours of the Star going supernova (Relativly speaking - because the Star is 21 million light years away). This is also being refered to as a "Zombie Supernova" because it is dead, and sucking the life out of its neighboring Stars.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/new-supernova-discovered-closest-exploding-star-to-earth-in-25-years.html

Very cool

So when will it be visible via binoculars?

thats pretty freakin cool

It reaches its peak visibility on the 9th, I believe.

what always get me is that this happened 21 million years ago

Agreed

Well if you really want something to blow your mind, the cosmic microwave background radiation that we've observed came to us from approximately the year 300,000 (in the age of the universe). That's over 13.5 billion years ago.