Electronic Telegram No. 2986
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 2012J IN ESO 386-39 = PSN J14562364-3736180
     L. A. G. Monard, Calitzdorp, Western Cape, South Africa, reports his
discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 16.8) on several unfiltered CCD
images taken on Jan. 2.080 UT.  The new object is located at R.A. =
14h56m23s.64, Decl. = -37d36'18".0 (equinox 2000.0), which is 20" west and
16" south of the core of the type-SBc galaxy ESO 386-39.  Nothing is visible
at this position on Digitized Sky Survey images (limiting red mag 20.5).
The variable was designated PSN J14562364-3736180 when it was posted at the
Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012J based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.  Additional CCD magnitudes for
2012J:  2011 Sept. 21.737, [18.5 (Monard); 2012 Jan. 3.086, 16.9 (Monard);
4.768, 15.8 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia, 41-cm telescope + STL6K
camera + infrared filter; range > 700 nm; position end figures 23s.72, 17".9;
image posted at URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6638708045/).

     N. E. Sanders, D. Milisavljevic, M. R. Drout, R. J. Foley, A. M.
Soderberg, and E. Berger, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, report
on low-dispersion spectra (range 360-950 nm) taken on Jan. 19 UT with the
6.5-m Magellan-Clay Telescope (+ LDSS3) of PSN J14562364-3736180 = SN 2012J,
showing that it is a type-Ib/c supernova about 2-3 months past maximum light.
The spectrum resembles that of the type-Ic supernova 1987M at 96 days after
maximum (Filippenko 1997, ARAA 35, 309).  Narrow emission lines from the host
galaxy, ESO 386-39, confirm a redshift of z = 0.0092 (Strauss et al. 1992,
Ap.J. Suppl. 83, 29).


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 January 21                  (CBET 2986)              Daniel W. E. Green