------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1088 1996 Jun 10 19.20UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- TA ANNUAL AWARDS It is once again time to invite all readers and subscribers to vote on the contents of the last volume, number 32 which covered the period from 1995 May to 1996 April. As before two votes are needed: 1) Best contributor to the cover material in volume 32 (The 'Alan Young' award) 2) Best overall contributor to the magazine and 'TA' in general during the same period. For the first time we encourage you to vote by e-mail which will make it easier for the Editor to collate the responses. Please therefore send the nominations for each category to reach the Editor's mailbox as soon as possible and by 1996 July 8 at the very latest. Responses should be sent to: guy@tahq.demon.co.uk SUPERNOVA 1996ae IN NGC 5775 Further to the announcement on E1083 and E1084 spectral confirmation that this object is actually a supernova was obtained as follows: S. Benetti, European Southern Observatory (ESO); and T.Zwitter, University of Ljubljana, report: "A low-signal-to-noise CCD spectrogram (range 332-905 nm, resolution 0.8 nm) of SN 1996ae obtained on May 27.98 UT with the ESO 1.5-mtelescope (+ Boller & Chivens spectrograph), is dominated by an H-alpha emission (with a complex profile) superimposed on a red continuum. The H-alpha consists of three components: an unresolved one centred at 660.1 nm, an intermediate one centered at 660.1 nm (FWHM about 2950 km/s), and a broad one centred at 665.4 nm (FWHM about 13 350 km/s). This profile is reminiscent of that shown by the peculiar type-II (IIn) supernova 1988Z (see Turatto et al. 1993, MNRAS 262, 128), about 100 days after maximum, but with the substantial difference that the broadest component of H-alpha emission in the SN 1996ae spectrum shows an unusual redward displacement with respect to the narrower components. H-beta is present in emission (centered at 489.1 nm), showing only the intermediate component (FWHM about 2050 km/s). A weak He I 587.6-nm emission (FWHM about 2000 km/s) is streaked by a very intense Na I D interstellar band (from which a redshift of 1850 km/s is derived for NGC 5775)." IAUC 6410 Editor: A personal account by the discoverers with supporting photographs will appear in the June issue of TA. Guy M Hurst