------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1726 2001 Dec 24 12.35UT 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.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- CHRISTMAS GREETINGS I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our subscribers a very happy Christmas and enjoyable New Year. In accordance with tradition, you are reminded that we hope to e- mail the annual Christmas quiz at some time during December 26 so please monitor your mailboxes! SUPERNOVA 2001ii IN UGC 444 The LOTOSS team have found a magnitude 18.6 supernova in UGC 444 on images with KAIT on 2001 Dec 11 and 13. It is located at: RA 0h 42m 05.44s DEC +36 48' 05.4" (2000). The offsets are: 9".2 E and 12".8 S. The announcement appeared on IAUC 7776. DK LACERTAE On a photographic plate of 1950 January 23, C.Bertaud, Observatoire de Paris, noted a star of magnitude 6.1 which was initially designated Nova Lac 1950 and subsequently catalogued as DK Lac. The position is: RA 22h 47m 40.5s DEC +53 01' 24" (1950) according to 'A reference Catalogue and Atlas of Galactic Novae' by Hilmar W. Duerbeck (Reidel Pulbishing, 1987). More recently Downes et.al. derived coordinates for (2000) as: RA 22h 49m 46.86s DEC +53 17' 18.3" (2000). Recently the RoboScope team report this nova, having remained near magnitude 17 from 1990 to September 2000, has recently started to fade reaching about magnitude 19 by 2001 Dec 17. This object clearly represents a considerable challenge but is within reach of large apertures with CCD's and the area remains well placed in early evening. We would welcome any deep images of the field to help study the unusual activity which, it is believed, may occur in many novae a considerable time after maximum. SUPERNOVAE 2001ij-2001in The Sloan Digital Sky Survey team have reported five supernovae, designated as above, recorded on Nov 21 and all are fainter than magnitude 20. Further details have appeared on IAUC 7778. 1998 WT24 Further to the note on The Astronomer E-Circular 1721, Nick James reports that he has now analysed the Dec 11 images further. As the object was moving so fast, four comparison stars were used which were normalised with the other three using combinations of frames where at least two were visible at the same time. The lightcurve shows a sinusoidal variation of 2.5 * log(0.42/0.34) = 0.23 mags with a period of about 0.06 days (1.44 hours). SUPERNOVA 2001if NEAR MCG +06-6-43 On TA E-Circular 1720, the editor commented that it was difficult to be sure which galaxy was the parent of this supernova, found by Tom Boles. S.Benetti, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, reports on IAUC 7779 that a spectrum of Dec 19 shows it to be a type Ia supernova past maximum light. From the estimated expansion velocity, it is suggested that the object belongs to the MCG +-6-6-43 cluster even though not clearly associated with a specific member. Guy M Hurst