I'm an amiture astronomer who lives in New Zealand (southern hemisphere).
Between about 10pm and 1:30am nzdt, on the evening of the 5th of January 2021, I was Star gazing with a friend who had never done it before. I was setting up my telescope to look at the seven sisters when my mate tells me with much excitement that he can see a star brightening dramatically. I look up and couldn't see what he was talking about so go back to setting up the telescope again. As I finish setting it up about a minute later to look up and see a particularly bright star(brighter than Sirius) start to drama