When, according to habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy . . . . There had never before been any star in that place in the sky.
Source: In Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, ed. Jason Shulman & Isaac Asimov, 1988.
-- Tycho Brahe, (Dec 14 1546-1601), Danish astronomer; He recorded the first exploding star seen in Europe and coined the term nova.