------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1607 2001 Feb 11 10.55UT 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 2001P IN NGC 3947 W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley, on behalf of LOTOSS reports the discovery of a supernova (mag about 17.5) on unfiltered images taken with the 0.8-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) on Jan. 31.4 and Feb. 1.3 UT. SN 2001P is located at: R.A. = 11h53m21s.56, Decl. = +20o44'53".3 (2000), which is 17".2 east and 13".1 south of the nucleus of NGC 3947. A KAIT image taken on Jan. 7.4 showed nothing at this position (limiting mag about 19.0). A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock, and M. Modjaz, University of California, Berkeley, report that inspection of CCD spectra (range 330-1000 nm), obtained on Feb. 1 UT with the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observatory, reveals that SN 2001P is a type-Ia supernova, roughly 1 week past maximum brightness. Some spectral features (e.g., Ti II absorption near 430 nm) suggest that it might be subluminous. IAUC 7576 SUPERNOVA 2001Q IN UGC 6429 Li also reports the discovery of another supernova on unfiltered KAIT images taken on Jan. 31.4 (mag about 18.6) and Feb.1.3 UT (mag about 18.3). SN 2001Q is located at: R.A. = 11h25m19s.77, Decl. = +63o43'15".6 (2000), which is 4".6 east and 29".6 south of the nucleus of UGC 6429. A KAIT image of the same field taken on Jan. 2.4 showed nothing at this position (limiting mag about 19.0). Filippenko et al. note that spectra obtained as above (but with poor quality longward of 520 nm) indicate that SN 2001Q is a young type-II supernova; the hydrogen Balmer absorption lines are prominent. IAUC 7576 COMET P/2000 Y10 (MUELLER 4) S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports the recovery of P/1992 G3 (= 1992g = 1992 IV) by T. Oribe (Saji Observatory) on CCD images taken with a 1.03-m reflector, with the astrometry given below. The comet is faint and of stellar appearance on 2000 Dec. 22 (m_2 = 20.5). The indicated correction to the orbital elements on MPC 31663 (ephemeris on MPC 41213) is Delta(T) = +0.23 day. 2000/01 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. m1 Dec. 22.84689 13 16 40.36 + 7 38 25.1 Jan. 30.83403 14 06 40.26 +11 45 20.1 19.6 30.84167 14 06 40.68 +11 45 24.9 Nakano provides the following orbital elements from 35 observations, 1992-2001 (mean residual 0".8): Epoch = 2001 Feb. 20.0 TT T = 2001 Feb. 7.8847 TT Peri. = 43.6165 e = 0.388590 Node = 145.3691 2000.0 q = 2.646731 AU Incl. = 29.7486 a = 4.328900 AU n = 0.1094304 P = 9.007 years IAUC 7577 (extract) Guy M Hurst