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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2792      2012 Jan 10 18.10UT
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
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POSSIBLE SUPERNOVA IN NGC 3239 (=PSN J10250739+1709146)
Although no announcement has so far been made by the Central Bureau on 
the discovery of the above object, a note has appeared on David Bishop's 
webpages indicating it was discovered on 2012 Jan 7.387UT by B. Moore, 
Jack Newton and Tim Puckett.

The quoted position is:
RA 10h 25m 07.38s DEC +17 09' 14.6" (2000), 24.7"E and 16.1" south of 
the centre of the presumed host galaxy, NGC 3239. The magnitude at 
discovery was 13.8 and believed to be rising.

Y. Cao (Caltech), M. M. Kasliwal (Carnegie/Princeton), G. Wallerstein 
(University of Washington), A. Ritchey (U. Washington), D. A. Howell 
(LCOGT/UCSB) report on The Astronomer's Telegram 3855 and on behalf of a 
large collaboration that today at 2012 Jan 10.275UT they obtain a low 
resolution spectrum of the new object using the Dual Imaging Spectograph 
on the ARC-3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. They observed a 
blue continuum and P-Cygni Balmer features allowing them to classify the 
transient as a Type II supernova. The minimum of H-alpha absorption is 
blue-shifted by 9000 km/s.

The discovery image can be found at:
http://www.possdata.com/PSNJ10250739+1709146.jpg
and this will enable careful identification of the new object given 
other nearby close field stars.

Guy M Hurst