------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1975 2004 Mar 04 11.30UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERNOVA 2004ad IN NGC 789 On 2004 March 1 we received an e-mail from Mark Armstrong, Rolvenden, England reporting that he had detected a possible supernova in the galaxy NGC 789 on unfiltered images of March 1 and located at: 2004 03 01.79634 RA 02h02m26.39s, DEC +32 04'22.2" mag 17.0 2004 03 01.84651 RA 02h02m26.34s, DEC +32o04'22.5" Offsets 4"E, 1.6"N. The suspect showed no asteroidal movement over 1.75 hours. There was no sign of the suspect on Mark's previous images 2003 Sep 24 (limiting magnitude 19.5, Dec 15, 2004 Jan 9 (limit 18.5), Feb 9 (limit 19.0). The POSS-II was also negative. In a further e-mail of March 2, Mark reported confirmation of the suspect. 2004 03 02.78921 RA 02h02m26s.39 DEC +32 04'22.4" mag 17.0 A provisional announcement has been made on Electronic Telegram 62 issued by the Central Bureau pending the issue of an IAUC. Congratulations to Mark on the discovery of his 56th supernova. 2004 DW A slow-moving body reported by M. E. Brown, D. L. Rabinowitz, and C. A. Trujillo, on CCD images obtained with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar on Feb. 17 is apparently the second-largest known transneptunian object (after Pluto), with an absolute magnitude H = 2.2 (assumed albedo parameter G = 0.15). Subsequently 2004 DW has been identified on survey photographs back to 1951. It has been found on a 1954 Nov 23 image which resulted in it being entered as a star in the USNO-B1.0 catalogue according to M.P.E.C. 2004-D15 D. Rabinowitz et. al., Yale University report on IAUC 8295 that on Feb 26 V=19.01 using the SMARTS 1.3-m telescope at Cerro Tololo. SUPERNOVA 2004aa IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY A. Udalski reports the OGLE-III discovery of an apparent supernova located at RA 04h 34m 02.90s, DEC -67 54'11.7" (2000). On Feb 16, the I-band magnitude was 20.2 (IAUC 8292). SUPERNOVA 2004ab IN NGC 5054 Berto Monard, South Africa, has reported discovery of a magnitude 14.7 supernova on images of Feb.21.98UT in NGC 5054. The location is: RA 13h 16m 58.18s DEC -16 37'52.7" (2000), 2"W and 11"N of the centre of the host galaxy according to IAUC 8293. SUPERNOVA 2004ac IN IC 4769 Monard also reports discovery of another possible supernova, this time in IC 4769. The magnitude was 16.9 on images of Feb. 29.10UT. The position is: RA 18h 47m 43.67s DEC -63 08'54.6" (2000), 9"W, 31"N of the host galaxy's nucleus according to IAUC 8295. Guy M Hurst