------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1638 2001 May 22 07.25UT 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 2001br IN UGC 11260 (=Q2001/218) On May 19, Mark Armstrong reported a suspected supernova just 2" from the nucleus of UGC 11260, first recorded on May 13.98861UT and again on May 19.03609UT during which time it brightened slightly from mag 16.6 to 16.3. Difficulties arose because the Palomar Sky Survey showed a more extended nucleus to the galaxy which made it difficult to establish whether the object was present previously and masked by the galaxy's structure. FITS images of earlier dates by Mark sent to the editor and displayed in RealSky also did not resolve the issue. Brian Marsden kindly agreed to solicit a spectrum which now confirms the supernova. Congratulations once again to Mark! Guy M. Hurst, "The Astronomer", Basingstoke, England, reports the probable discovery by Mark Armstrong, Rolvenden, Kent, of a supernova at R.A. = 18h30m25s.55, Decl. = +34o06'13".0 (2000), 2" east and 2" north of the nucleus of UGC 11260. Unfiltered CCD magnitudes were 16.6 on May 13.989, 16.3 on May 19.036 and 16.0 on May 21.117 UT. The object was confirmed by Tom Boles, Coddenham, Suffolk, on May 20.059 UT. The object, although quite close to the nucleus of the galaxy, does not appear to be on master patrol images by Armstrong on 2000 Nov. 12, 2001 Apr.\ 19, May 3 and May 8 (limiting mag 19), or on one by Boles on 2001 Apr. 29. T. Matheson et.al., Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, report that a spectrum of SN 2001br, obtained by K. Rines on May 21.44 UT with the F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope (+ FAST spectrograph), shows it to be a type Ia supernova near maximum light. Adopting the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database recession velocity of 6184 km/s for the host galaxy, the supernova expansion velocity is about 13 500 km/s for Si II (rest 635.5 nm). The spectral feature age of the supernova (Riess et al. 1997, A.J. 114, 722) is 1 +/- 2 days before maximum light. IAUC 7629 SUPERNOVA 2001bp IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY M. Papenkova and W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley (UCB), report the discovery by LOTOSS of an apparent supernova (mag about 17.5) in an unfiltered image taken with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) on May 15.4 UT. The new object was confirmed at about the same brightness on an unfiltered image taken with the Tenagra Observatory 0.5-m automatic telescope by M. Schwartz on May 16.2 UT. SN 2001bp is located at: R.A. = 16h02m09s.25, Decl. = +36o43'08".0 (2000), which is 3".5 east and 6".0 south of an anonymous galaxy. IAUC 7626 SUPERNOVA 2001bq IN NGC 5534 S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, communicates that K. Itagaki, Teppo-machi, Yamagata (0.60-m f/6.0 reflector + CCD), reports his discovery of a supernova (mag 15.9) in NGC 5534 on five 15-s frames taken on May 17.587 UT and confirmed on May 12.562 (mag 16.0), as well as on May 18.566, when the position was measured as R.A. = 14h17m42s.06, Decl. = -7o25'01".6 (2000). W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley, reports that SN 2001bq was confirmed on unfiltered images taken with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope on May 10.3 UT (mag about 16.0) and 14.3 (mag about 15.3). IAUC 7628 (extract) Guy M Hurst