------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1265 1998 Jan 25 14.36UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERNOVAE: 1997ek to 1997fa P. Nugent, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), on behalf of the Supernova Cosmology Project reports the discovery of seventeen supernovae, all discovered near maximum light and found with the Cerro Tololo 4-m telescope in their High Redshift Supernova Search. IAUC 6804 (extract) Editor: All these objects were of mag R=21 or fainter and were recorded on 1997 Dec 28-29. SUPERNOVAE: 1997fb to 1997fe L. Germany reports, on behalf of the Mount Stromlo Abell Cluster Supernova Search Team (cf. IAUC 6639), their discovery of four apparent supernovae on V and R CCD images (limiting mag V = 21.5) taken by S. Chan at the Mount Stromlo 1.27-m telescope: SN Date UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. V Offset 1997fb Dec. 31 5 01 14.60 -38 38 12.7 18.6 1".3 W, 0".4 N 1997fc Dec. 31 4 59 58.81 -38 55 04.3 20.5 4".9 E, 1".9 N 1997fd Dec. 28 3 41 15.65 -53 29 30.8 21.2 7".1 E, 1".3 S 1997fe Dec. 31 4 33 07.64 -61 26 19.3 19.5 5".7 E, 6".2 S Confirmation images (limiting mag R = 21) for all four objects were obtained by S. Sabine at the same telescope on 1998 Jan. 12. Previous images not showing each supernova were taken on the following dates (with galaxy cluster membership noted parenthetically): 1997fb and 1997fc, Dec. 19 (Abell 3301); 1997fd, Dec. 12 (Abell 3158); 1997fe, Nov. 7 (Abell 3266). IAUC 6807 SUPERNOVA 1998A IN IC 2627 Andrew Williams, Perth Observatory, reports the discovery by Simon Woodings, Ralph Martin, and himself of an apparent supernova (R about 17) on a CCD frame taken on Jan. 6.77 UT with the 0.61-m Perth-Lowell reflector as part of the Perth Astronomy Research Group's automated supernova search. SN 1998A is located 40" east and 10" south of the centre of IC 2627. No object was present at this position on a frame taken on 1997 Dec. 18 (limiting mag R about 18.5), nor is any star present on earlier, deeper search images of this galaxy. A. Verveer and J. Biggs obtained an unfiltered CCD image on Jan. 7.844 with the Perth 0.25-m Mike Candy Telescope, from which Biggs has derived the following precise position for SN 1998A: R.A. = 11h09m50s.33 +/- 0s.07, Decl. = -23o43'43".1 +/- 0".2(2000); the magnitude was estimated as 16.5. IAUC 6805 (extract) A.V.Fillippenko corrects the offsets to 40" west and not east. IAUC 6809 (extract) SUPERNOVA 1998B IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY J. Mueller reports her discovery of a supernova (mag about 18.5) on plates taken on Jan. 1 and 2 with the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt Telescope in the course of the second Palomar Sky Survey. SN 1998B is located 7" east and 1".5 south of the centre of a galaxy at R.A.= 7h46m02s.1, Decl. = +18o43'02" (equinox 2000.0). There is no object at this position on the Digital Sky Survey. Filippenko and Moran report that a Keck-telescope spectrum of the object, obtained as above, shows that it is a type-Ia supernova, 3-4 weeks past maximum brightness. The redshift of the host galaxy is 0.045. IAUC 6809 Guy M Hurst