Binoculars generally reveal only two stars. It shines with a steady brightness for years, and then without warning, it simply disappears. Of course, it isn't gone completely. Poor R CrB has simply become so dim that it is visible in only the largest of observatory telescopes. After remaining faint for days or weeks, it slowly and fitfully regains its brightness, and then shines again with a steady brightness until, years later, it winks out again.
Stars are, after all, giant hydrogen bombs, efficient thermonuclear furnaces.
They explode because, deep in their centers, hydrogen is compressed at temperatures of millions of degrees to form helium. The energy released from that simple reaction sustains a star for billions of years with little change in the intensity of the explosion. Eventually, stars begin to run out of hydrogen fuel. Helium is fused together to form carbon, and the star will live for a relatively short time on that secondary thermonuclear reaction. In a mere few million years, the star will cease its explosion and collapse to a tiny, dense ball of dead stellar material.