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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2855      2012 Sep 16 14.54UT
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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COMET C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)
Graham Wolf, New Zealand included a note in his contribution to the 
September issue of 'The Astronomer'(in press) that Comet C/2011 L4 
underwent an outburst on 2012 August 21UT:
120819.38 S  12.8  AC  30   L     6 240  2.0   6               Wolf
120821.34 S   9.8  AC  30   L     6 240  5.4   3               Wolf
Comet in outburst! Elongated coma 5.4 x 4.8 arcminutes.

J. J. Gonzalez, Leon, Spain using a 0.20-m reflector, confirmed the 
outburst on August 21.86UT, m1=9.5, 6' diameter.

N. Biver, D. Bockelee-Morvan, R. Moreno, and J. Crovisier, LESIA, 
Observatoire de Paris; P. Hartogh and M. de Val Borro, 
Max-Planck-Institute fuer Sonnensystemforschung; M. Kidger and M. 
Kueppers, European Space Agency; S. Szutowicz, Space Research Center, 
Poland; D. C. Lis and G. A. Blake, California Institute of Technology; 
and the team of the "Herschel Guaranteed Time Key Program" called "Water 
and related chemistry of the Solar System" report on CBET 3230 that the 
1_(10)-1_(01) water line at 557 GHz was detected in comet C/2011 L4 (cf. 
IAUC 9215) with the HIFI instrument aboard the Herschel spacecraft on 
Sept. 6.4 UT.  The line width is 0.77 km/s, and the line area of 0.077 
+/- 0.004 K km/s (main-beam brightness temperature) corresponds to a 
water-production rate of 5 x 10^(27) molecules/s.

DWARF NOVA IN PEGASUS = PNV J23272715+0855391
Hitoshi Yamaoka, Kyushu University, reports on CBET 3228 the discovery 
by K. Itagaki, Yamagata, Japan, of a possible nova (mag 13.9) on 
unfiltered supernova-search CCD images taken on 2012 Sept 13.568 UT with 
a 0.50-m f/6 reflector.  The new object is located at RA 23h 27m 27.15s 
DEC +8 55' 39.1"(2000).  The discovery image has been posted at the 
following website URL:
http://www.k-itagaki.jp/images/pnv-psc.jpg.  A possible quiescent 
counterpart of red magnitude 22.0 is present in the Sloan Digital Sky 
Survey (DR8), suggesting a rather large amplitude for a dwarf nova.  The 
variable was designated PNV J23272715+0855391 when it was posted at the 
Central Bureau's TOCP webpage.  Additional CCD magnitudes for PNV 
J23272715+0855391:  2011 Oct. 19.559, [19.0 (Itagaki); 2012 Sept. 
13.951, V = 13.9 (Massimiliano Martignoni, Magnago, Italy; 25-cm f/10 
Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector; position end figures 27s.13, 38".8); 
14.163, 13.7 (R. A. Koff, Bennett, CO, USA; Meade 0.25-m f/10 reflector 
+ Apogee U-47 camera; limiting magnitude 18.4; position end figures 
27s.14, 38".8; UCAC3 reference stars; image posted at website URL 
http://antelopehillsobservatory.org/SNpictures/PNVJ23272715+0855391final.
jpg).

M. Dennefeld, Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris and University of Paris 
6; M. Valentini, University of Liege; A. Siviero and A. Pizzella, 
University of Padova; L. Tomasella, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova; and the NEON school (cf. IAUC 7664) 
students M. Cortes (Spain), N. Ozel (Belgium), and A. Rajpurohit 
(France), report that a spectrogram of PNV J23272715+0855391, obtained 
on Sept. 13.87 UT with the 1.82-m Copernico telescope (+ Afosc 
spectrograph; range 350-820 nm, resolution 1.3 nm), suggests that this 
is a dwarf nova.

Guy M Hurst