------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2079 2005 Jan 25 21.11UT 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 2005B IN UGC 11066 On 2005 January 13, Tom Boles, Coddenham, England, reported his discovery of a magnitude 17.5 supernova recorded on ten unfiltered CCD images of Jan 13.227UT secured for the UK Nova/Supernova Patrol With a 0.35-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The new object is located at: RA 17h 54m 48.72s DEC +71 32' 34.5" (2000), which is approximately 18.4" W and 8.5"N of the centre of UGC 11066. The suspect is not present on Tom's images of 2004 Sept 4 and Oct 2 (limiting mag 19.5) and it is not present on DSS II red (1993.612 limiting mag 21.0) or blue plates (1989.666 limiting mag 20.5) We subsequently learnt from IAUC 8462 issued on Jan 13 that D. Lane, Saint Mary's University and P. Gray had discovered the same object on unfiltered CCD images taken on Jan. 12.1 UT with a 0.28-m reflector at Stillwater Lake, NS. Their end figures are: RA 48.8s DEC 35" The object has been designated supernova 2005B and both Tom's discovery and that of Lane/Gray have been announced on IAUC 8462. Congratulations to Tom on the discovery of his 83rd supernova. NOVA IN MESSIER 31 (ARBOUR) The object discovered by Ron Arbour and reported on TA E-Circular 2073 has been confirmed as a nova in Messier 31. According to IAUC 8462, M. Della Valle, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Arcetri et. al., report: "Preliminary analysis of spectra of the bright variable star obtained on Jan. 10.73, 11.87, and 12.76 with the Asiago Observatory 1.8-m telescope (+ AFOSC; range 400-760 nm, resolution about 0.3 nm), confirms this object to be a classical nova caught near maximum light. Unlike the object found by Mark Armstrong and listed on the CBAT WWW page, the nova found by Ron Arbour, which appeared in IAUCs, does not appear to have a designation. We are attempting to clarify this with the Central Bureau. Guy M Hurst