Electronic Telegram No. 2978
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 2012B IN PGC 13981 = PSN J03513452+3704427
   J. Newton and T. Puckett report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag
17.2) on an unfiltered CCD image (limiting mag 19.0) taken with a 0.40-m
reflector at Portal, AZ, U.S.A., on Jan. 8.2033 UT in the course of the
Puckett Observatory Supernova Search.  The new object, which was confirmed
at mag 17.2 on Jan. 9.210 by Puckett with the 40-cm reflector at Portal, is
located at R.A. = 3h51m34s.52, Decl. = +37o04'42".7 (equinox 2000.0), which
is 5".0 east and 7".6 south of the center of PGC 13981.  Nothing is visible
at this position on images taken by Puckett on 2011 Dec. 27 (limiting mag 19.2).
An image of the variable has been posted by the discoverers at the following
website URL:  http://www.possdata.com/PSNJ03513452+3704427.jpg.  The new
object was designated PSN J03513452+3704427 when it was posted at the Central
Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012B based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.  Additional CCD magnitudes for
2012B (unfiltered unless noted otherwise):  Jan. 10.043, 16.0 (R. A. Koff,
Bennett, CO, USA; Meade 0.25-m f/10 reflector + Apogee AP-47p camera; bright
moonlight; limiting magnitude 17.8; position end figures 34s.47, 42".2; UCAC3
reference stars); 10.134, 17.4 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia; remotely
using a 51-cm RCOS telescope + STL11K camera + luminance filter at the New
Mexico Skies Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.; position end figures
34s.51, 42".9); 10.959, 16.9 (Federica Luppi and Luca Buzzi, Varese, Italy,
0.38-m f/6.8 reflector; position end figures 34s.57, 43".1; reference stars
from CMC-14 catalogue); 11.305, 17.3 (Brimacombe; position end figures 34s.53,
43".5); 11.454, R = 16.7 (P. Miller, P. Roche, A. Tripp, R. Miles, R. Holmes,
S. Foglia, and L. Buzzi; 2.0-m f/10 "Faulkes Telescope North" + Bessell R
filter at Haleakala; position end figures 34s.56, 43".0; reference stars from
PPMXL catalogue); 16.783, R = 16.4 +/- 0.1 (K. Sarneczky, Konkoly Observatory,
Hungary; 1.02-m RCC Telescope; position end figures 34s.55, 43".4; USNO-B1.0
reference stars).  Brimacombe's Jan. 10 image is posted at the following URL:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6675085425/.  Luppi and Buzzi's
image is posted at URL http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_P13981.jpg.  The
image of Miller et al. is posted at the following website URL:
http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_P13981_FTN.jpg.

     L. Magill, R. Kotak, and D. Wright, Queen's University, Belfast, report
that optical spectra (320-990 nm) of PSN J03513452+3704427 = SN 2012B were
obtained at the Isaac Newton Telescope (+ IDS) on Jan. 16.007 UT.  The spectra
were cross-correlated with a library of supernova spectra using the Supernova
Identification tool (SNID; Blondin and Tonry, 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024) and
yielded the following results:  2012B is best fit with the normal type-Ia
supernova 2002er (Kotak et al. 2005, A.Ap. 436, 1021) at an epoch of three
days post-maximum light.  An expansion velocity of 10000 km/s is measured
from the Si II absorption feature found at 624 nm, corrected for the expansion
velocity of the host galaxy, PGC 13981 (5199 km/s; Wegner et al. 1993, A.J.
105, 1251; via the NED database).


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

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 January 18                  (CBET 2978)              Daniel W. E. Green