Electronic Telegram No. 1610 Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions) CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science) URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html SUPERNOVA 2008hy IN IC 334 M. Dennefeld, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris and University of Paris 6; C. Adami and D. Russeil, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille; I. Agnoletto, Universita di Padova; and J. Sollerman, Stockholm Observatory, report that two spectra of 2008hy (cf. CBET 1608), obtained on Dec. 7.948 and 7.962 UT with the Carelec spectrograph at the 1.93-m telescope at Haute Provence Observatory (range 369-732 nm, resolution 0.7 nm), show it to be a normal type-Ia supernova a few days past maximum. The best fit to this spectrum found by GELATO (Harutyunyan et al. 2008, http://lanl.arxiv.org/ abs/0804.1939) is with a spectrum of SN 1990N at 7 days after maximum. Adopting a recession velocity of 2536 km/s for the host galaxy (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies; Huchra et al. 1999, Ap.J. Suppl. 121, 287), the expansion velocity deduced from the Si II 635.5-nm absorption is about 11000 km/s. M. Yamanaka, K. Sakimoto, and K. S. Kawabata, Hiroshima University; report that they obtained optical spectra (range 500-900 nm) of 2008hy on Dec. 7.8 UT with the KANATA 1.5-m telescope (+ TRISPEC) at Higashi-Hiroshima Astronomical Observatory. SN 2008hy exhibits strong Si II 635.5-nm and Si II 597.2-nm absorption features that are blueshifted by about 12000 km/s. The spectrum shows the W-feature profile of sulfur at 520-550 nm and the Fe II multiplet absorption at 460-500 nm, and the O I 777.4-nm feature is seen at 750 nm. The spectrum is similar to that of SN 2003du at around maximum, which suggests that 2008hy would be normal type-Ia supernova at maximum phase. NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT 2008 December 8 (CBET 1610) Daniel W. E. Green