------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2606 2009 Dec 22 15.43UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- S/2009 S 1 C. C. Porco, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute, Boulder; and the Cassini Imaging Science Team report the discovery on IAUC 9091 of a satellite orbiting within the outer B ring in Saturn's rings. The satellite was seen in a single Cassini narrow-angle camera image with an exposure time of 820 ms, taken through the clear filter on 2009 July 26 (or sixteen days before Saturn's northern vernal equinox on Aug. 11), through the presence of a 36-km long shadow that it cast onto the rings. Its radial distance from the centre of Saturn at the time of the observation was measured to be 117000 km. From the length of its shadow and the elevation of the sun at the time of the observation, the distance that the satellite protrudes above the rings was measured to be approximately 150 m; the inferred diameter of the satellite, assuming an orbit co-planar with the ring material, is consequently approximately 300 m. OUTBURST OF R71 IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD R. Gamen, Instituto de Astrofisica de La Plata, CONICET et. al., relay on IAUC 9082 that in early 2009 August, Albert Jones of New Zealand reported an unusual visual brightening of the luminous blue variable HDE 269006 (= R71) in the Large Magellanic cloud to visual mag 9. The ASAS-3 database shows that the unusually gradual rise in the light curve started approximately 5 years ago, albeit with some oscillations during that time, becoming steeper over the last 1300 days; the latest outburst was first reported via vsnet by P. Williams in 2008 March and Taichi Kato in 2008 Apr based on visual observations and the ASAS-3 photometric database, and by Munari et al. who noted that R71 had brightened to V = 9.97 and that RAVE spectroscopy in 2008 Feb showed it to be similar to an early-A supergiant. After a bright maximum in 1975 (V approximately 9.9), the star had faded to V about 10.8-11.0. By mid October R71 was the brightest star in the LMC visually. Follow-up spectroscopic observations obtained at Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito on 2009 Aug 9 by Ferrero, and at LCO by Schkolnik on Aug. 20 and 24 and by Preston on Aug. 26, show the spectrum resembles an extreme early-F-type hypergiant. More recent spectra display a populous set of sharp and deep absorption lines of singly ionized and neutral metals characteristic of an F0 Ia spectrum. Narrow and distinctive P-Cyg profiles in H_alpha, H_beta, Fe II (multiplet 42), and Ca II infrared triplet emission lines are also present. This high-state spectrum is unprecedented in R71 and, together with the unprecedented visual magnitude, indicates an extreme outburst in this Luminous Blue Variable star, with the characteristic conservation of the bolometric magnitude. SUPERNOVAE 2009kb-2009kj PS1 Science Consortium reports on CBET 1988 discovery May-June 2009 of nine supernovae all magnitude 21 or fainter. SUPERNOVA 2009kk IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY Discovery by CRTS of a possible supernova (CBET 1991): SN 2009 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. Offset 2009kk Oct 15.41 03 49 44.27 -03 15 51.9 15.5 14.5"E,16.9"S J. M. Silverman et. al., report CCD spectra of Oct. 21UT with the 3-m Shane reflector shows it is a normal type-Ia supernova near maximum light. Guy M Hurst