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IAUC 6944: 1998cn; SGR 1627-41

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                                                 Circular No. 6944
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)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)


SUPERNOVA 1998cn IN NGC 3735
     Michael Schwartz, Cottage Grove, OR, reports his discovery of
an apparent supernova (mag 15.8) on an unfiltered CCD frame taken
with the 0.35-m Tenagra I automated supernova patrol telescope on
June 17.48 UT.  SN 1998cn is located at R.A. = 11h35m54s.4, Decl. =
+70o32'10".2 (equinox 2000.0), which is 5".6 west and 10".2 north
of NGC 3735.  The object is also present with unchanged brightness
on a frame taken on June 18.26.  The object does not appear on an
unfiltered CCD image taken with the same equipment on Apr. 17.31,
and the star is not present in the Vickers atlas and other CCD
atlases.


SGR 1627-41
     C. Kouveliotou, Universities Space Research Association
(USRA); M. Kippen, P. Woods, and G. Richardson, University of
Alabama in Huntsville; V. Connaughton, National Research Council;
and M. McCollough, USRA, report on behalf of the BATSE team at
Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA:  "BATSE has detected repeated
soft gamma-ray bursts consistent with the same (previously unknown)
location.  We recorded three bursts on June 15.109, 15.296, and
15.411 UT (BATSE triggers 6825, 6826, and 6827, respectively) with
an average duration of about 200 ms.  Preliminary spectral analysis
of the data indicates that the events are very soft, with power-law
spectral indices varying between -3.0 and -7.0.  BATSE triggered
five more times, on June 17.873, 17.901, 18.004, 18.035, and 18.071
(BATSE trigger numbers 6833, 6834, 6835, 6836, and 6837,
respectively).  The last trigger had a peak count rate of over
300 000 counts/s above background (integrated over four detectors
between 20 and 1000 keV, in 1-s intervals) and a duration of about
3 s.  Due to its very high peak intensity, deadtime effects prevent
us from using it for localization, until we receive more data types.
The weighted location of the seven remaining triggers is centered
on R.A. = 16h27m12s, Decl. = -41o06'.0, with an error radius of
about 2 deg.  This location does not correspond to any previously
known soft gamma-ray repeating source; we conclude that we have
discovered a new source, SGR 1627-41.  We have initiated an RXTE
ToO and we strongly encourage wide-field observations at other
wavelengths."

                      (C) Copyright 1998 CBAT
1998 June 18                   (6944)            Daniel W. E. Green

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