------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2791 2012 Jan 04 16.56UT 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- MASTER OPTICAL TRANSIENT 061730.02+3540.6 V. Lipunov, Moscow State University and others report on The Astronomer's Telegram 3843 that the MASTER-Amur auto-detection system discovered an OT source at: RA 06h 17m 30.02s +35d 40' 36.6" on 2011 Dec 28.57184UT. The OT magnitude in 'V' filter is 14.5C (limit 17.9C) The OT is seen in two images. There is no minor planet at this position. They have reference images without OT on 2011-12-14 17:40:49 UT with unfiltered magnitude limit 17.5m There is a galaxy J061730.07+354040.9 with 4" offset. The discovery image is available at http://observ.pereplet.ru/images/OT061730.02+3540.6/OT061730+3540.jpg Denis Denisenko reports: I have downloaded and analysed 9 Palomar DDS plates and 21 Palomar-NEAT images. There is nothing at the position of the transient on any individual image or on the combination of them. Lipunov et al. refer to "the galaxy J061730.07+354040.9 with 4" offset" which is a very faint object in SDSS catalogue (g=24.10+/-0.40, r=24.78+/-0.65, i=22.22+/-0.20). Even if the SDSS object is real, I am not sure if it's related to the transient. First of all, the confirmation is needed if the OT is still visible remembering it is 7 days old! Guy M Hurst