THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 676 1992 Oct 14 20.16UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074 TELEX: 9312111261 Answerback: TA G TELECOM GOLD: 10074:MIK2885 GMH at UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.STARLINK.ASTROPHYSICS STARLINK: RLSAC::GMH GMH at UK.AC.CAM.ASTRONOMY.STARLINK STARLINK: CAVAD::GMH ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOVA SAGITTARII 1992 No 3 (Q1992/075) Paul Camilleri, Cobram, Victoria, Australia, has e-mailed to us details of a probable nova which he has found in Sagittarius. Using his 85-mm lens and T-Max 400 film he recorded the new object at magnitude 9.0 on 1992 Oct 13.40UT. On Sept 29.41UT it was not recorded to a limit of magnitude 12. Rob McNaught, Australia has e-mailed confirmation of the new object and provides the following positional data: "Position from CCD frames taken 1992 Oct 13 (1.0-m at SSO): R.A. = 18h20m39s.43, Decl. = -23 01'05".5 (1950.0) Nova is close to edge of frame, but within reference stars. This is only just the case on the second frame which has two stars too close to the edge to measure." Herman Mikuz, Slovenia, e-mails an estimate: 1992 Oct 14.77UT, 8.0 (40x80B). SUPERNOVA 1992bb IN IRAS 21156-0747 R. H. McNaught, Anglo-Australian Observatory, reports his discovery of a supernova (B about 17.5) in the nearly-edge-on spiral galaxy IRAS 21156-0747. The discovery plate was taken on Sept.30.5 UT by M. J. Drinkwater with the U.K. Schmidt Telescope. A U plate taken by Drinkwater 45 min earlier shows the supernova marginally brighter with respect to nearby stars. The supernova is not present on Sept. 2.5 to a limit of I = 19.5 on a UKST plate taken by A. Savage, but it appears at mag about 18 on Sept. 27.4 on a UKST prism film taken by Drinkwater and K. M. Sealey (University of New South Wales). Drinkwater notes that the spectrum shows two emission lines, possibly [O III] at 495.9 and 500.7 nm. Coordinates measured from the B plate are R.A. = 21h15m35s.18, Decl. = -7 47'42".5 (1950), offset 19" west and 4" north from the galaxy's centre. No star appears in the position of the supernova on J or R survey films. A nearby star of mag 17 has end figures 32s.11, 47".6. IAUC 5629 SUPERNOVA 1992bc IN ESO 300-G9 M. Hamuy, Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory; and J. Maza, University of Chile, report the discovery by R. Antezana (University of Chile) of a supernova located about 15" east and 5" north of the nucleus of the spiral galaxy ESO 300-G9 (R.A. = 3h03m22s.2, Decl. = -39 45'15", 1950). The supernova, of mpg about 15, was found on a 20-min unfiltered IIa-O plate taken by C. Muena and G. Valladares with the CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope on Oct.4.364 UT. A spectrogram (range 320.0-750.0 nm), obtained by Maza on Oct. 6.1 with the CTIO 4-m telescope, shows the characteristic Si II 635.5-nm feature of type-Ia supernovae. The minimum of the Si II absorption yields an expansion velocity of about 13 000 km/s with respect to the galaxy's rest frame. This spectrum shows resemblance to that of the type-Ia SN 1989B, 7 days before maximum light. The spectrum of the galaxy's nucleus yields a redshift of z = 0.019. IAUC 5630 Guy M Hurst