------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2493 2008 Oct 23 13.26UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOVA IN MESSIER 81 M. M. Kasliwal, California Institute of Technology, report on CBET 1528 their discovery on 2008 Sept.25.49 UT of a nova located at: RA 09h 55m 59.35s DEC +69 05'57.1" (2000), which is 141" east and 122" north of the centre of Messier 81. Discovered with the Palomar 1.5-m reflector in the course of their "Fast Transients In Nearby Galaxies" search program, the nova was at magnitude g = 19.5 +/- 0.1 at discovery. 2008 TC_3 Further to the note on TA E-Circular 2489, J. Borovicka, Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, reports on IAUC 8994 that Z. Charvat (Czech Hydrometeorological Institute) has noticed a bright spot that likely corresponds to the atmospheric entry of 2008 TC_3 over northern Sudan on images taken by the weather satellite Meteosat 8 around Oct. 7d02h45m UT; the spot is apparent in all twelve satellite spectral channels, spanning wavelengths 0.5-14 microns. Scanning mode makes precise timing difficult but the spot is, however, not present in the images taken at nominal times 2h40m and 2h50m UT. The geographical coordinates of the spot in the visual and near- infrared channels are long. = 32.16 deg east, lat. = +20.97 deg. SUPERNOVA 2008fz IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY Discovery by Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) of a possible supernova (CBET 1524): SN 2008 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2008fz Sep. 22.34 23 16 16.60 +11 42 47.5 17.1 - - E. Y. Hsiao et. al, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, report that a spectrogram of Sept. 23.33 UT with the 1.82-m Plaskett Telescope of the National Research Council of Canada, shows it to be a type-Ic supernova at 2 weeks past maximum light. SUPERNOVA 2008ga IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY Discovery by Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) of a possible supernova (CBET 1526): SN 2008 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2008ga Sep. 24.44 04 45 24.00 +18 24 25.1 17.6 6.4"W,40.0"S SUPERNOVA 2008gb IN UGC 2427 Discovery by the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search of a possible supernova (CBET 1527): SN 2008 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2008gb Oct. 4.40 02 57 57.13 +46 51 56.6 16.9 4.7"E, 6.7"S SUPERNOVA 2008gc IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY Discovery by the CHASE project of a possible supernova (CBET 1529): SN 2008 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2008gc Oct. 3.16 02 10 36.63 -53 45 59.5 17.4 0.6"W, 0.5"S COMET P/2008 T3 = 1892 T1 (BARNARD-BOATTINI) Following a suggestion by M. Meyer (Limburg, Germany) that comet P/2008 T3 (discovery Oct 7) may be identical to the long-lost comet D/1892 T1 = 1892e = 1892 V (Barnard), G. V. Williams (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) has collected 41 astrometric observations and the resulting orbital calculations by Williams and by S. Nakano confirm the identity. Nakano notes that the comet made 20 revolutions between 1892 and 2008, passing about 0.3-0.4 AU of Jupiter in 1922 Oct., 1934 Aug., and 2005 Aug. Guy M Hurst