They're talking about viewing the supernova itself with binoculars. Supernovae are the actual explosion of a dying star, spewing much the star's matter out (the rest converted to energy) in one massive expulsion. There are a couple ways in which supernovae occur (tbomachines' crash course in quantum physics )

As a star continues to burn out and collect matter, the gravitational pull becomes so great (and therefore density so thick) that the electrons within the star insufficiently spin (manifestation of electron deficiency pressure) and creates a massive nuclear explosion through fusion.

The other kind is similar, basically everything gets more and more compressed until helium and carbon are compressed enough to create nuclear fusion, but then regulates itself until more pressure is achieved, and the cycle continues until it reaches a limit (Chendrashekar limit I believe?) the mass can no longer self-regulate and sustain itself, so the matter and energy starts to be expelled outward.

Depending on the original size of the star, the remnants of a supernova are either a neutron star (just a ball of neutrons, picture this as "waste" or "ashes" of the supernova) or if it is big enough, the gravitational pull paired with the energy from the supernova is strong enough to consume itself and condense into a black hole. Not all supernovae have core collapses, only the extremely large ones--and this is only theory as to how black holes are formed, but there is a handful of supporting evidence. Basically we are not talking about looking at a black hole (since you cannot actually see it empirically) but rather the remnants of a supernova which are emitting HUGE amounts of energy in the form of light (which is why we can see it). I haven't read up enough on this specific event to know much about its size/scope/etc.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth