------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1412 1999 May 23 14.31UT 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 1999cd IN NGC 3646 M. Papenkova and W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley, on behalf of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search, report their discovery with the 0.8-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) of an apparent supernova in NGC 3646. The new object was discovered on unfiltered images taken on May 14.224 and 14.279 UT (mag about 17.9) and was confirmed on images taken on May 15.175 (mag about 17.6). SN 1999cd is located at R.A. = 11h21m42s.89, Decl. = +20o09'24".1 (2000), which is about 3".7 west and 46".4 south of the galaxy nucleus. IAUC 7169 COMET C/1999 J4 (LINEAR) An asteroidal object reported by LINEAR on May 15.3 UT (mag 18.2-18.8) with unusual motion was noted on The NEO Confirmation Page, and it has subsequently been reported to be cometary in appearance by several observers. Preliminary parabolic orbital elements by B. G. Marsden: T = 1999 Oct. 28.036 TT Peri. = 90.878 Node = 264.309 2000.0 q = 3.86165 AU Incl. = 118.822 IAUC 7170 (extract) SUPERNOVA 1999ce IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY M. Papenkova also report their discovery of an apparent supernova on an unfiltered image taken on May 16.2 UT (mag about 18.3) with the 0.8-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT), the object being confirmed on an earlier image taken on May 10.2 (mag about 18.8). SN 1999ce is located at R.A. = 11h28m51s.57, Decl. = +57o08'04".0 (2000), which is about 1".5 southeast of the nucleus of the host galaxy. IAUC 7170 (extract) COMET C/1999 K2 (FERRIS) LONEOS reports the discovery of a comet by William D. Ferris on CCD frames taken with the 0.59-m LONEOS Schmidt telescope: 1999 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 May 19.36625 20 48 11.34 - 7 56 29.5 18.1 The following very preliminary parabolic orbital elements are by B. G. Marsden: T = 1999 Oct. 30.589 TT Peri. = 28.089 Node = 300.677 2000.0 q = 5.16257 AU Incl. = 84.306 IAUC 7175 COMET C/1999 K3 (LINEAR) M. Elowitz, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reports the discovery of an apparently cometary object in LINEAR data, as follows: 1999 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 May 20.26972 19 02 40.60 + 9 02 47.8 18.7 Preliminary parabolic elements by Marsden: T = 1999 Feb. 26.754 TT Peri. = 340.458 Node = 266.798 2000.0 q = 1.91752 AU Incl. = 92.027 IAUC 7175 Guy M Hurst