------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2137 2005 Aug 08 18.29UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- POSSIBLE NOVA IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD Bill Liller, Chile, advises us that he has discovered of a possible nova located at: RA 01h 15.0m, Dec. = -73 26' (2000), which was recorded at magnitude approximately 10.4 on two Kodak Tech Pan films taken on 2005 Aug. 6.388 UT with a 0.2-m Schmidt camera. Nothing brighter than mag 13 appears at this location on a photograph Bill obtained on Mar. 23. The new object is in a crowded field and near two open clusters. Berto Monard, South Africa, reports that his CCD observations obtained around Aug. 7.84 show a new object at: RA 01h 14m 59.92s DEC -73 25'35.8" (2000). He also measured the following magnitudes for the possible nova: Andrew Pearce, Australia, also reports a visual observation of the apparent new object on Aug. 8.509UT at magnitude 11.7. SUPERNOVA 2005da IN UGC 11301 Discovery by LOSS of a possible supernova (IAUC 8570): SN 2005 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2005da Jly 18.35 18 37 46.89 +17 32 35.3 16.9 108.4"W, 34.8"N A KAIT image taken on 2004 June 2.36 showed nothing at this position (limiting mag about 19.5). OCCULTATION BY PLUTO I (CHARON) L. A. Young et. al., Southwest Research Institute report on IAUC 8570 their observations of an occultation on 2005 July 11 of the star 2UCAC 26257135 by Pluto I (Charon). E. F. Young and K. Shoemaker observed with 0.2-s integration times using the visitor instrument PHOT on the 4.2-m SOAR telescope at Cerro Pachon. C. Olkin, C. Ruhland, and L. A. Young observed via a 240-s I-band exposure trailed at 1".5/s with the 4-m Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo. R. French, B. Gregory, L. A. Young, and R. Galvez observed via 0.5-s I-band exposures using the 0.9-m SMARTS telescope + CCD at Cerro Tololo. All three sites report durations of 55.3 +/- 0.2 s. The chord length is 1179 +/- 4 km, which serves as a lower limit on the diameter from these telescopes. No obvious atmosphere was detected. Immersion and emersion times (+/- 0s.01) at SOAR were 3h36m16s.19 and 3h37m11s.26 UT. Guy M Hurst