------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2374 2007 Sep 12 15.09UT 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 Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.theastronomer.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- V455 ANDROMEDAE = HS 2331+3905 N. N. Samus, Institute of Astronomy, Moscow, advises that this cataclysmic variable (see TA E-Circulars 2372, 2373), which has undergone its first known major outburst this past week, has been assigned the permanent variable-star designation V455 And. (160256) 2002 PD_149 K. S. Noll and S. D. Kern, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) et. al., report on CBET 1046 the detection of a binary companion to the transneptunian object (160256) 2002 PD_149. The observations of May 22.195-22.212 UT with the Planetary Camera of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope, show two components separated by an angular distance of 0".74 +/- 0".01 and differ in brightness by 0.4 mag. The projected separation of the objects in the sky plane is 24400 +/- 300 km. SUPERNOVAE 2007gx, 2007gy, 2007gz, 2007ha, 2007hb, 2007hc, 2007hd, 2007he The "Nearby Supernova Factory" collaboration reports on CBET 1043, 1044, the discovery of eight supernovae in images obtained using the QUEST-II camera on the Palomar Oschin 1.2-m Schmidt telescope, operated by the Palomar-QUEST Consortium. R-band discovery magnitudes and astrometry were derived from comparison with the USNO-B1.0 catalogue. SN 2007 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. z Type 2007gx Aug. 9.2 17 18 51.49 +22 47 16.6 19.9 0.08 Ic 2007gy Aug. 19.3 23 51 13.57 +11 25 18.9 18.5 0.04 IIn 2007gz Aug. 20.2 22 48 02.47 +23 15 17.8 19.6 0.05 II 2007ha Aug. 20.5 0 46 01.79 -23 14 14.4 19.8 0.17 Ia 2007hb Aug. 24.4 2 08 34.02 +29 14 14.3 19.5 0.02 Ib/c 2007hc Aug. 24.5 0 35 58.01 +24 02 13.4 17.3 0.02 II 2007hd Aug. 22.5 3 08 56.43 -11 16 22.6 18.9 0.09 Ia 2007he Aug. 24.5 2 51 40.17 -12 39 31.5 19.8 0.12 Ia SUPERNOVAE 2007hf, 2007hg, 2007hh, 2007hi Further "Nearby Supernova Factory" collaboration supernovae discoveries (CBET1047): SN 2007 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. z Type 2007hf Aug. 24.5 2 37 28.26 -23 32 04.7 18.6 0.05 Ia 2007hg Aug. 24.5 4 08 32.65 + 2 22 43.7 18.0 0.03 Ia 2007hh Aug. 26.2 16 46 59.10 +38 56 02.5 19.9 0.11 Ia 2007hi Aug. 26.2 17 11 15.47 +21 15 38.0 19.8 0.07 II SUPERNOVA 2007hj IN NGC 7461 Discovery by Parisky and Li of a possible supernova (CBET 1048): SN 2007 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2007hj Sep 01.32 23 01 47.89 +15 35 11.4 15.9 6.7"W,14.0"N S. Blondin et.al., report that a spectra of Sept 3.28UT suggests this is a type Ia sub-luminous event. 2007 AURIGID METEORS P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute, reports on CBET 1048 that observations onboard two research aircraft over Nevada and California indicate that the anticipated Aurigid outburst from the 1-revolution dust trail of comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess) did occur on Sept. 1 between 10h30m and 12h00m UT, with a peak at 11h15m +/- 5 minutes. The peak rate was within a factor of two of that expected. Most meteors were in the magnitude range -2 to +3. Guy M Hurst