THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 771 1993 Aug 28 14.54UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERNOVA 1993X IN NGC 2276 R. R. Treffers et al, University of California at Berkeley; and M. W.Richmond, Princeton University, report their discovery of an apparent supernova in NGC 2276 (R.A. = 7h10m31s, Decl. = +85o50'.9, 1950), located about 30" east and 69" north of the galaxy's nucleus. The object was found during the Leuschner Observatory Supernova Search, which uses an automated 0.76-m telescope equipped with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory CCD camera. It was visible at mag R = 16.3 +/- 0.4 on Aug. 22 UT, with confirmation at about the same brightness on Aug. 23 and 25. It could not be detected to limiting mag R = 17.5-18.0 in images obtained on Mar. 6, Apr. 2, May 1, and 8. IAUC 5850 MARS OBSERVER STATUS REPORT The following is the latest message from JPL: August 27, 1993 5:30 PM PDT The Mars Observer flight team continued today to listen for any response from the spacecraft, three days after its planned orbit around Mars. At this time communication has not been reestablished. The command sequence to "reboot" the spacecraft's central computer, sent at 4:30 a.m. PDT this morning (Aug. 27), would place the spacecraft in "safe mode," in which state it would listen for commands from the ground for 64 hours. If, at the end of this interval, it had not heard from the ground, a "phone home" command would be executed on the spacecraft. Late Friday, the flight team was deciding whether to allow the 64-hour safing mode program to clock out before considering sending other commands to the spacecraft this weekend. Commands sent prior to that 64-hour safing interval could interrupt the safe mode interval and reset the clock to begin another 64-hour countdown. In the team's attempts to regain communications with Mars Observer, a number of failure scenarios have been identified. At this time, however, NASA does not know what caused the loss of communication, nor can the agency assign blame to any particular part or process. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin yesterday named Dr. Timothy Coffey to head the Mars Observer investigation board. Dr. Coffey is currently director of research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. It is NASA's standard policy to implement an independent review when there is cause to believe that a mission's primary objective cannot be met. This status will be updated during the day and evening as new information becomes available. Telephone calls should be directed to JPL Public Information, Area Code 818/354-5011. R CORONAE BOREALIS Several observers report this star is fainter than usual although there is, as yet, unsufficient evidence to suggest a full fade is in progress: 1993 Aug 24.920, 6.1 (G.Hurst, Basingstoke, UK); 25.15, 6.1 (W.Dillon, Missouri, USA); 25.472, 6.2 (T.Kato, Japan); 26.920, 6.3 (Hurst); 27.15, 6.4 (Dillon); 27.560, 6.5 (M.Moriyama, Japan); 27.927, 6.6 (Hurst); 28.441, 6.5 (Kato).