------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1637 2001 May 21 17.26UT 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 2001bh IN UGC 11635 D. W. Xu and Y. L. Qiu, on behalf of Beijing Astronomical Observatory supernova survey, report the discovery of an apparent supernova found on unfiltered CCD images taken on May 8.77 (poor image quality, magnitude not estimated) and 10.83 UT (mag about 17.0). SN 2001bh is located at R.A. = 20h43m29s.82, Decl. = +80o09'27".3 (2000), which is 1".8 west and 6".4 north of the nucleus of UGC 11635. IAUC 7622 SUPERNOVA 2001bg IN NGC 2608 A. Gal-Yam and O. Shemmer, Tel Aviv University, report: "A spectrum (range 400-780 nm) of SN 2001bg (cf. E1631) was obtained by J. Dann using the Wise Observatory 1-m telescope (+ FOSC spectrograph) on May 10. The spectrum is similar to early spectra of the type-Ia SN 1994D before maximum, including the prominent silicon feature redward of 600 nm." H. Kawakita and K. Kinugasa, Gunma Astronomical Observatory (GAO); and H. Yamaoka, Kyushu University, write: "A low-resolution spectrum (range 380-750 nm) of SN 2001bg was taken with GAO 0.65-m telescope on May 10.55 UT. The preliminary reduction shows that the object to be a type-Ia supernova near maximum light. Adopting the NED recession velocity of 2135 km/s for NGC 2608, the supernova expansion velocity, measured from the Si II absorption minimum (rest 635.5 nm), is 9700 km/s. Note that NGC 2608 also produced SN 1920A (m_pg = 11.8)." IAUC 7622 Editor:This was the supernova discovered by Tom Boles SUPERNOVAE 2001bi-2001bo B. Vicente et.al., Centro Investigaciones de Astronomia (CIDA), Merida, on behalf of the QUEST collaboration, report on seven supernovae discovered with the QUEST 16-CCD array camera on the CIDA 1-m Schmidt telescope at Llano del Hato Observatory. SN 2001 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. R Offset 2001bi Mar. 24 9 28 37.79 - 0 36 58.1 20.0 1" W, 1" N 2001bj Mar. 24 10 36 25.83 - 0 58 17.8 20.2 --- 2001bk Mar. 20 11 25 32.13 - 1 44 01.3 18.2 2" E, 4" S 2001bl Mar. 24 12 12 57.36 - 0 00 53.1 19.9 --- 2001bm Mar. 25 13 35 58.65 - 0 45 03.3 19.7 2" E, 0" N 2001bn Mar. 25 14 30 39.53 - 2 06 00.6 19.4 1" W, 0" N 2001bo Mar. 25 15 25 40.80 - 1 18 00.5 20.8 1" W, 0" N IAUC 7624 (extract) SUPERNOVA 2001bf IN MCG +04-42-22 H. Kawakita and K. Kinugasa, Gunma Astronomical Observatory; and H.Yamaoka, Kyushu University, write: "Despite the low-S/N ratio, a low-resolution spectrum of SN 2001bf taken with the Gunma 0.65-m telescope (+ GCS spectrograph) on May 11.61 UT clearly shows a deep and broad Si II absorption feature around 610 nm on a rather blue continuum, indicating that this is a type Ia supernova shortly before maximum light. Other broad absorption features typical of type Ia events are also seen." (Discovery by Mark Armstrong) IAUC 7625 AL COM Steve Kerr, Australia, reports an outburst of AL Com on May 18.51 at mag 13.4v (0.25-m refl.). Gary Poyner confirms this event on May 19.986UT at mag 12.7v using the BAA sequence. Guy M Hurst