------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1614 2001 Mar 04 12.47UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL ABSENCE The editor will be away and not contactable from the morning of March 7 and will return late on March 10. During that period please refer any URGENT messages to Nick James or Denis Buczynski but send additional copies to the editor's mailbox for review upon my return. SUPERNOVA 2001W IN MCG +07-34-134 T. Puckett, M. Marcus, and D. George, Mountain Town, GA, report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 17.5) on an unfiltered CCD frame (limiting mag 20.5) taken with the Puckett Observatory 0.60-m automated supernova patrol telescope on Feb.26.46 UT. SN 2001W is located at R.A. = 16h41m15s.09, Decl. = +39o17'44".5 (2000), which is 0".1 west and 20".6 north of the centre of MCG +07-34-134. The new object was also present and confirmed on CCD frames taken on Feb. 28.34 with a 0.40-m reflector by J. Newton at Chiefland, FL. SN 2001W does not appear on unfiltered images taken by Puckett on 2000 June 29, July 8, and Aug. 23 or on Palomar Sky Survey images taken on 1993 Apr. 30, 1989 May 31 (limiting mag about 21.0), and 1953 May 19 (limiting mag about 19.7). IAUC 7590 SUPERNOVA 2001X IN NGC 5921 W. Li, University of California at Berkeley, communicates that Y. Fan, Y. L. Qiu, and J. Y. Hu, on behalf of Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) Supernova Survey, report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag about 17.0) found on an unfiltered image taken with the BAO 0.6-m telescope on Feb. 27.8 UT. SN 2001X is located at R.A. = 15h21m55s.45, Decl. = +5 03'42".1 (2000), which is 15".5 west and 32".4 south of the nucleus of NGC 5921. SN 2001X was confirmed on an unfiltered image taken by M.Schwartz on Mar. 2.5 with the Tenagra Observatory 0.5-m automatic telescope, from which Li measured the position end figures to be 55s.46 +/- 0s.03, 43".1 +/- 0".2, and the magnitude of the supernova to be 15.2. Images of the same field taken with the BAO 0.6-m telescope on Feb. 6.9 (limiting mag about 17.5) and with the Tenagra 0.5-m telescope on Feb. 17.5 (limiting mag about 18.0) showed nothing at this position. Li remarks that a normal type-Ia supernova in this galaxy might reach mag about 13. IAUC 7591 V4643 SAGITTARII N.N.Samus, Institute of Astronomy, Moscow advises that the above designation has been assigned to the object formerly known as Nova Sagittarii 2001 and announced on E1611. Akimasa Nakamura writes on VSNET that Akihiko Tago (Tsuyama, Okayama, Japan) has informed him that his photographic observations of V4643 Sgr provide the following magnitudes: 2001 Feb. 19.863 UT fainter than 10.0 Feb. 22.860 UT fainter than 9.8 Feb. 26.870 UT mag. 9.5 (sequence : GSC) Instruments: 105mm F/4 lens + unfiltered T-max 400 film He adds that since the Feb. 22 observation was made only 36 hours earlier than Liller's discovery, it seems to be important to know how fast the nova rose. Guy M Hurst