------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1776 2002 May 31 17.45UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL NOTICE A major interruption to the TA communications system due to an underground cable problem and lasting nearly 48 hours, caused the telephone line to TAHQ to be totally out of action during that period. Although the BT engineers were consulted immediately they indicated the earliest repair would be Wednesday June 5. Fortunately, after explaining the very heavy traffic of Internet messages handled, they placed a priority on the task and finished the repair late today, May 31. Even so, 343 incoming messages have just been downloaded but have not yet been read and there will be an evitable delay whilst attempts are made to clear the backlog. We apologise for this, which is totally outside our control. SUPERNOVA 2002cy IN NGC 1762 L. A. G. Monard of Pretoria, South Africa has reported his discovery of a possible supernova in NGC 1762 on images of May 8 with a 0.30-m f/4.2 reflector in conjunction with an unfiltered CCD. The object was then of magnitude 16.7 and its position was measured as: RA 05h 03m 35.33s DEC +01 34' 29.5" (2000), placing it 30"W and 5" north of the galaxy's centre. SUPERNOVA 2002cz According to IAUC 7905, W. W. Wood-Vasey et.al., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have reported a magnitude 18.8 possible supernova in an anonymous galaxy on Palomar NEAT images of May 9. The position is: RA 13h 34m 02.59s DEC -14 49' 19.7" (2000), 9"E of the galaxy's nucleus. SUPERNOVA 2002da A further set of Palomar NEAT images of May 16.3 show a possible magnitude 18.8 supernova at: RA 13h 24m 35.96s DEC +21 20' 08.2" (2000), 2"W of the centre of an anonymous galaxy according to IAUC 7905. Guy M Hurst