------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2383 2007 Oct 06 10.10UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER ANNUAL MEETING, 2007 OCTOBER 20 We are delighted to announce the addition of a further speaker for our annual meeting to be held on Saturday October 20 here in Basingstoke. Daniel Fischer, from Germany, will be talking on 'Unusual Effects in Annular Eclipses'. On reviewing the press announcements this morning about the industrial action affecting Royal Mail, we understand no further post can be accepted until next Thursday and that subsequent planned action might mean delivery thereafter could be substantially delayed. This seems to suggest our usual method of sending programmes by post about 10 days before the event is not practical this year. We are exploring the alternative of e-mailing programmes within the next few days and will keep you informed. SUPERNOVA 2007it IN NGC 5530 C. Contreras et. al., on behalf of the Carnegie Supernova Project, report on CBET 1068 that the probable bright supernova in NGC 5530 (see TA E-Circular 2376) has been confirmed as a supernova. 2007it is found at: RA 14h 18m 25.627s DEC 43 22' 53.80" (2000), with B magnitude 13.1 +/- 0.3, relative to 40 field stars in the USNO-B1 catalogue from Sept 14.03. A spectrum of Sept 14.98UT indicates it to be a young type-II supernova. SUPERNOVA 2007iu IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY Discovery by ROTSE collaboration of a possible supernova (CBET 1069): SN 2006 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2007iu Sep 8.24 01 25 20.11 +08 54 12.7 19.0 - - It is blended with a nearby USNO-catalogue star of mag 16.2 in the ROTSE images. A spectrum of Sept.15.28 UT with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope shows it to be a type-II supernova. VARIABLE STAR IN PERSEUS Herman Mikuz, Crni Vrh Observatory, has reported to us that a new starlike variable (mag 17.9R) was detected on four unfiltered CCD images (limiting mag 19.0) taken around Sept. 16.078UT in the course of the PIKA project at the Crni Vrh Observatory using the 0.60-m f/3.3 Cichocki telescope. A report has subsequently appeared in IAUC 8870. The variable object is located at: RA 03h 57m 28.01s DEC +35 37'16.3" (2000). This position is consistent with USNO-B1-catalogue star 1256-0061977 with B magnitude 21.5. Additional PIKA magnitudes for the new object show that it is brightening: 2003 Sept. 26, [19.0; 2004 Feb. 9, [19.0; 2005 Jan. 11, [19.0; 2007 Sept. 16.955, B = 17.90, R = 17.65; Sept. 17.037, B = 17.60, R = 17.39. Nothing is visible at this location on several Palomar Sky Survey and 2MASS images from the Aladin database. Guy M Hurst