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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1072      1996 May 05 17.15UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England. Telephone/FAX(0256)471074 Int:+44256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK             GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK
WORLD WIDE WEB                    http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer
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SUPERNOVA 1996Y IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY
Jean Mueller reports her discovery of an apparent supernova (red
mag about 18.5) at R.A. = 11h21m32s.57, Decl. = +2o53'14".0
(equinox 2000.0), which is 7" west and 13" north of the centre of
the host galaxy.  SN 1996Y was found on a IIIa-F plate exposed by
K. M. Rykoski and Mueller with the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt telescope
on Apr. 10 UT in the course of the second Palomar Sky Survey.
I.N. Reid reports that no object appears at the position on a Sky
Survey IIIa-F plate taken on 1991 Mar. 17.  A spectrum obtained on
Apr. 19 by S. G. Djorgovski and R. Gal at the 5-m Hale telescope (+
double spectrograph) suggests that this is indeed a supernova.

A. V. Filippenko, University of California at Berkeley, reports
that inspection of a CCD spectrum (range 467-750 nm, resolution
0.7 nm) obtained by M. Eracleous and D. C. Leonard (also of
Berkeley) on Apr. 21 UT with the 3-m Shane reflector at Lick
Observatory shows that the object is a supernova.  The spectral
type and phase are uncertain pending calibration of the data.
IAUC 6385

COMET 29P/SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1
H. Rauer, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon; and H. Bohnhardt,
University Observatory, Munich, report observations made at the
European Southern Observatory with the Danish 1.54-m telescope (+
DFOSC):  "On Apr. 26, comet 29P exhibited an extended coma of
elliptical shape (north-south diameter about 3'.5, east-west
diameter about 2').  The central coma condensation was starlike
(mag R = 17.6).  On Apr. 27, this central condensation had
R = 14.4, about 3 mag brighter than on the previous day. Despite
the suggestion of an outburst, changes in the inner and outer
coma are not yet obvious."
IAUC 6389

V1316 CYGNI
On 1996 Apr 28 we sent out an appeal (=Q1996/024) for confirmation
of a rare outburst of V1316 Cygni. The original report was from
Gary Poyner, Birmingham, who detected it on 1996 Apr 27.052UT
at mv=14.7 using 0.40-m refl.
We have subsequently learnt that Tonny Vanmunster of Belgium
did confirm the outburst on Apr 29.919UT at 14.7 using an
unfiltered CCD.

Guy M Hurst