------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1276 1998 Mar 07 19.30UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERNOVA 1998S IN NGC 3877 W.-d. Li, University of California at Berkeley, forwards a report from C. Li, Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO), that Zhou Wan has found an apparent supernova (unfiltered mag 15.2) on CCD images obtained with the 0.60-m BAO telescope on Mar. 3 UT as part of the BAO Supernova Survey (cf. IAUC 6612). A confirming CCD observation made with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) of Lick Observatory by the Lick Supernova Survey (cf. IAUC 6627) indicates that the object has brightened to unfiltered mag about 13.5 on Mar. 4.3 UT. SN 1998S is located at: R.A. = 11h46m06s, Decl. = +47o29'.0 (2000.0); based on the KAIT image), which is 16" west and 46" south of the nucleus of NGC 3877. As the object is embedded in the galaxy, the BAO magnitude was obtained from a subtracted image. SN 1998S is not present in images of the same field taken prior to Mar. 3. IAUC 6829 (extract) Akimasa Nakamura reports the following prediscovery observation of SN 1998S, measured by him from a CCD image taken by K. Kawakami (Kochi University). 1998 Mar. 2.70 UT mag 16.0: instrument: 20.3cm(F6.3) T + CCD NF. ECLIPSE, 1998 FEB 26, SHADOW BANDS RECORDED Eric Strach, Liverpool, England, faxes that his analysis of a video recording of the recent solar eclipse as viewed by him from Curacao shows that the shadow bands have been recorded, his first ever success with this particular experiment. The following is a small extract from extensive eclipse reports due to appear in the March issue of 'The Astronomer': Eric Strach: My main experiment was done automatically by the camcorder: recording shadow bands. These are notoriously difficult to capture on photographs or on film. This time I used a polaroid filter combined with an UV filter and succeeded in capturing these elusive bands. Analysis of the video recording showed that the bands were slightly more pronounced before totality than after third contact; they were clearly visible for 32 seconds before second contact and for 27 seconds after third contact. However, to the naked eye they were visible for over one minute after totality. The bands moved rapidly across the screen in a direction from East to West before totality and from NNE to SSW after totality; the bands were disposed at an angle of 70o to the E-W line before second contact and at 35o after third contact. Slow motion studies of the video showed that the bands merged at times and on occasions they seemed to move in the opposite direction - undoubtedly a stroboscopic effect. Guy M Hurst