------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2420 2008 Feb 11 09.04UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERNOVA 2008af IN UGC 9640 On 2008 February 9, Tom Boles of Coddenham, England e-mailed that he had discovered a possible supernova of mag 17.1 in UGC 9640 during the course of searches for the UK Nova/Supernova Patrol. The discovery was made from an unfiltered CCD image taken on 2008 Feb 09.173UT with a 0.35-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The new object is located at: RA 14h 59m 28.51s DEC +16 39'12.2" (2000), which is approximately 12.4"E and 29.6"N of the centre of the host galaxy. The suspect is not present on Boles' images of 2006 June 29 and 2007 Apr 10 (limiting mag 19.5) and it is not recorded on DSS II red (1991-05-15 limiting mag 20.5), blue plates (1993-03-23 limiting mag 21.0) Tom obtained confirmation on Feb 10.026UT and at a similar magnitude to discovery night. The object was designated Supernova 2008af on CBET 1248. Congratulations to Tom on the discovery of his 110th supernova. SUPERNOVA 2008S IN NGC 6946 Poonam Chandra and Alicia Soderberg report on The Astronomer's Telegram 1382 and on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed type IIn supernova SN 2008S (found by Ron Arbour, cf TA E-Circulars 2415 and 2418), with the Very Large Array (VLA) on 2008, February 10.62 UT. We do not detect any radio emission at the supernova position. The flux density at the supernova position is -62 +/- 36 uJy. UK CONTRIBUTIONS TO PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY Subscribers are reminded that this petition to the Government (cf TA E-Circulars 2403, 2404) has a deadline for voting of 2008 February 18. At the time of this circular it has attracted 16,461 votes. Please take action as soon as possible if you wish to vote: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Physics-Funding/ Guy M Hurst