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IAUC 6548: 1996ce; GRO J1744-28

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                                                 Circular No. 6548
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
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Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


SUPERNOVA 1996ce IN MARKARIAN 785
     C. Pollas, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, reports his
discovery of an apparent supernova (V about 18.0) on a film taken
on 1996 Dec. 16.23 UT with the OCA 0.9-m Schmidt telescope.  SN
1996ce is located at R.A. = 13h16m15s.47, Decl. = +30o15'52".6
(equinox 2000.0), which is 6".0 west and 1".9 north of the center
of the galaxy Mrk 785 = KUG 1313+305 = MCG +05-31-167; nothing is
visible at this location on a film obtained several years ago at
OCA.  S. Ilovaisky and J. Taupenas (Observatoire de Haute-Provence)
confirm the new star with a V CCD observation obtained on 1997 Jan.
26.10 with the 1.2-m telescope.  A nearby star (V about 16.0) has
position end figures 14s.81, 17'17".0.


GRO J1744-28
     M. J. Stark, University of Maryland and Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC); K. Jahoda and J. H. Swank, GSFC; and T. Strohmayer,
GSFC and Universities Space Research Association, report:  ''We
observed GRO J1744-28 on Jan. 18 with the Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer (RXTE) and confirm the earlier report (IAUC 6530) that it
is again in outburst.  The flux detected by the Proportional
Counter Array on RXTE is roughly equivalent to the flux detected
from the Crab nebula.  The fluxes observed during our first eight
days of monitoring are as follows:  Jan. 18, 12 800 counts/s; 19,
12 700; 20, 13 100; 21, 13 100; 22, 12 800; 24, 13 500; 25, 13 400;
26, 13 200; 27, 13 500 (where 10 000 counts/s implies a luminosity
of 3.5 x 10E38 erg/s in the range 2-60 keV for this source at 8
kpc).  The luminosity during bursts reaches as high as 1.2 x 10E40
erg/s.  The average interval between bursts is 38 min.  The burst
duration is 10-12 s, which is similar to the duration of bursts on
1996 Mar. 1, when the source was last at this intensity.  The
current x-ray flux is intermediate between the flux corresponding
to the possible infrared detection of a counterpart (x-ray flux
about 1.7 Crab) and the flux corresponding to several upper limits
(x-ray flux about 0.5 Crab; IAUC 6369; Cole et al. 1997, Ap.J., in
press, with preprint available at http://xxx.lanl.gov/e-print/
astro-ph/9610079).  Despite the difficulty of observing near the
sun we urge renewed searches for the infrared counterpart."

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 January 31                (6548)            Daniel W. E. Green

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