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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2978      2014 Jan 29 20.34UT
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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EDITOR'S ABSENCE
The editor will be away from Jan 31 attending the Galway Astronomical
Festival where he will give two talks on Saturday Feb 1. I look forward to
seeing friends and subscribers at this event. Due to other commitments I
will return on Feb 5. During this period Nick James will kindly issue
circulars and handle discovery claims. 
His contact details are on the 'officials' page of each issue and on the TA
website.

SUPERNOVA 2014J IN M82: PROGENITOR
S.C. Williams (Liverpool John Moores University) et. al. reports on The
Astronomer's Telegram 5824 initial results of the search for a resolved
progenitor of the recent Type Ia supernova in M82.
Liverpool Telescope data taken using the IO:O CCD camera on 2014 January
26.91UT were used to constrain the position of the SN relative to a number
of field stars. They conducted a search for the progenitor system using
archival Hubble Space Telescope data (F435W, F555W and F814W) taken on 2006
March 27.
In agreement with preliminary results in ATEL #5789, we find no resolved
progenitor candidate coincident with the position of the supernova in any of
the ACS/WFC data. We performed photometry on these data using DOPLHOT and
hence derive the following limiting magnitudes F435W>23.3, F555W>23.4 and
F814W>24.5 (based on photometry of nearby F435W>faint sources). 

Recurrent Nova systems, such as RS Oph and T CrB, containing red giant
secondaries, and U Sco, which harbours a sub-giant secondary, are a
potential progenitor pathway to SN Ia. Assuming a distance to M82 of 3.5
+/-0.3 Mpc and either negligible reddening or E(B-V) = 1.2 (ATEL #5818),
these upper photometric limits can be compared to a distance and extinction
corrected SED</a>  of known quiescent recurrent novae, including M31N
2008-12a with a one year inter-outburst time. Even assuming zero extinction,
these limits do not rule out systems similar to any known Galactic or
extragalactic recurrent (or fainter classical) novae from being the
progenitor of SN 2014J. 

SUPERNOVA 2014G IN NGC 3448 (KOICHI ITAGAKI)
2014G   Jan 14.57   10 54 34.13  +54 17 56.9  15.6  44  "W   20  "S
The discovery image was posted at URL:
http://www.k-itagaki.jp/images/3448.jpg.
Patrick Wiggins (Erda, USA) with a Celestron C14 reflector + SBIG ST-10XME
camera) reports an independent discovery of this variable at mag about 17
from images apparently taken on Jan. 14.317 and 14.542
R. Itoh: spectrum Jan 14 good match to type-II supernovae close to maximum.

SUPERNOVA 2014H (TNTS)
2014H   Jan 14.56   03 37 01.48  +32 05 01.7  16.8   0.2"E    9.2"N
J.-J. Zhang: spectrum Jan 15 type-Ia a few days before maximum.

SUPERNOVA 2014I IN PGC 17633 (PARKER)
2014I   Jan 17.52   05 42 19.80  -25 32 39.9  17.0r 15  "W   12  "S
An image of the variable is visible via URL: http://tinyurl.com/kl4a876
M. Childress: spectrum Jan 18 type-Ia a few days before maximum

Guy M Hurst