Electronic Telegram No. 2657
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat@iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


SUPERNOVA 2011ad
     W. Zheng, University of Michigan; J. Vinko, University of Szeged; R.
Quimby, California Institute of Technology; A. Romadan, N. Whallon, B. Sandler,
S. B. Pandey, F. Yuan, and C. Akerlof, University of Michigan; and J. C.
Wheeler and E. Chatzopoulos, University of Texas, on behalf of the ROTSE
collaboration, report the discovery of a new supernova (mag about 19.0) in
unfiltered images taken on Feb. 11.21 UT with the 0.45-m ROTSE-IIIb telescope
at McDonald Observatory.  The new object, which was observed again on Feb.
12.25 at mag about 18.6, is located at R.A. = 11h45m59s.58, Decl. =
+46o46'50".5 (equinox 2000.0; uncertainty about 1"), which is 1".0 west and
1".0 south of the center of the presumed host galaxy (SDSS J114559.68+464651.5).
A finding chart for 2011ad can be found at the following website URL:
http://www.rotse.net/rsvp/j114559.6+464651/j114559.6+464651.jpg.  A spectrum,
obtained on Feb. 15.24 with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (+ Marcario
Low-Resolution Spectrograph) by S. Rostopchin, shows that 2011ad is a type-Ia
supernova near maximum light.  The spectrum contains the Si II 635.5-nm line
and several other characteristic type-Ia-supernova features.  According to
SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024), the spectrum of 2011ad most
resembles those of SN 1995D (at 4.2 days after maximum) and SN 2002er (at 6.4
days before maximum).  The median redshift estimate is z = 0.092.  Adopting
this redshift, the velocity (from the absorption minimum of the Si II 635.5-nm
feature) is 11200 km/s.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2011 CBAT
2011 February 19                 (CBET 2657)              Daniel W. E. Green