novae

June 3, 2010: A new supernova in M51 was discovered by A. Riou and confirmed by several sources, including the Palomar Transient Factory (Silverman et al., ATEL 3398). It is located at 13:30:05.08 +47:10:11.2 J2000 and has a magnitude of about 13.5. Nice images of the supernova can be found at: http://6888comete.free.fr/fr/imageSN.htm PTF also obtained a spectra from Keck, indicating that this is a type II supernova with a relatively blue continuum with P-Cygni profiles in the Balmer series.

June 1, 2011: John Seach (Chatsworth Island, NSW, Australia) has identified a transient object on 3 images taken with a digital SLR camera. The coordinates are: RA 16 55 11 Dec -38 38 12 J2000 The discovery magnitude on June 1.40UT was 9.5 No object was seen on images taken the previous night, and no minor planet, comet or variable star is known at that position. He also does not see any DSS object at those coordinates. Confirmation of this object is requested.

This season, we're trying something different for our Variable Star of the Season feature.  For the January 2012 edition, we asked former AAVSO Councillor Dr.