------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2701 2010 Dec 30 20.05UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- BRAZIL TO JOIN THE EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY On 2010 December 29, at a ceremony in Brasilia, the Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology, Sergio Machado Rezende and the ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw signed the formal accession agreement aiming to make Brazil a Member State of the European Southern Observatory. Brazil will become the fifteen Member State and the first from outside Europe. Since the agreement means accession to an international convention, the agreement must now be submitted to the Brazilian Parliament for ratification. The signing of the agreement followed the unanimous approval by the ESO Council during an extraordinary meeting on 21 December 2010. Further supernovae reported in recent CBETs: SUPERNOVA 2010kg IN NGC 1633 (LOSS) 2010kg Nov 29.34 04 40 08.40 +07 21 00.0 18.8 10.5"W, 3.0"N Spectrum of Dec 1 (Calkins) suggests type-Ia a week before maximum. SUPERNOVA 2010kh IN UGC 11657 (LOSS) 2010kh Nov 18.09 20 59 46.73 -01 53 43.9 17.4 3.3"W, 29.1"S SUPERNOVA 2010ki IN 2MASX J23160991-0214004 (Itagaki) 2010ki Dec 2.47 23 16 09.58 -02 14 05.3 16.9 5.4"W, 5.2"S Pre-discovery by Itagaki, 2010 Nov 21.44UT, 17.3 SUPERNOVAE 2010kj AND 2010kk (Mt. Lemon Survey) 2010kj Nov 2.32 02 48 37.15 +07 24 10.8 18.5 1 "E, 1 "S 2010kk Nov 8.36 03 53 23.23 +09 54 33.3 20.2 0.5"W Spectroscopy of both objects with the SAO's BTA 6-m reflector on Nov 15 UT indicates each is type-Ia. SUPERNOVAE 2010kl AND 2010km (CRTS) 2010kl Nov 16.47 11 27 17.48 +03 45 33.3 18.9 0.3"W, 10.0"N 2010km Dec 4.33 02 55 12.81 +24 38 13.1 18.8 9.1"E, 3.3"N SUPERNOVA 2010kn (ROTSE) 2010kn Dec 2.20 11 50 17.04 +43 57 47.0 18.5 0.2"E, 1.6"N A spectrum of Dec. 5.45 with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope by M. Shetrone, shows it to be a type-Ia supernova, a few days before maximum light. SUPERNOVA 2010ko IN NGC 1954 (Montarrenti) 2010ko Dec 5.01 05 32 49.44 -14 05 45.9 16.8 15 "E,118 "S Guy Hurst reports that an image with the Bradford Robotic Telescope on Dec 26.04UT gave an unfiltered magnitude measurement of 15.6 indicating a brightening since discovery. A spectrum of Dec. 7 UT by M. Calkins with the F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope shows the best fit is with the type-Ia supernova 1992A when five days before maximum brightness. J. Parrent et. al., on behalf the "Palomar Transient Factory", also report a CCD spectrum with the Gemini South telescope on Dec. 7 UT shows it to be of type-Ia close to or before maximum light at an approximate redshift of z = 0.01. Further inspection suggests it may be one of the subluminous type-Ia supernovae. Guy M Hurst