If you haven’t done already, please consider registering for this webinar:
“Practice Makes Perfect: Getting Ready for the Next Galactic Supernova”
(see link on the AAVSO home page). The next galactic (core collapse) Supernova will be THE high energy event that you cannot afford to miss: an event of this type is frequent enough so that you will have a fair chance to witness one during the rest of your lifetime, but on the other hand so rare that if you miss the next one, chances that will will be given another chance are not really great! So it is literally a once-per-generation type of event.