Electronic Telegram No. 2975
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 2012A IN NGC 3239
     Y. Cao, California Institute of Technology; M. M. Kasliwal, Observatories
of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Princeton University; G.
Wallerstein and A. Ritchey, University of Washington; and D. A. Howell, Las
Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope and University of California at Santa
Barbara, on behalf of a large collaboration, report that they obtained a
low-resolution spectrum of SN 2012A (cf. CBET 2974) on Jan. 10.275 UT with
the Dual Imaging Spectograph on the ARC 3.5-m telescope at Apache Point
Observatory.  The presence of a blue continuum and P-Cyg Balmer features
allow them to classify 2012A as a type-II supernova.  The minimum of the
H-alpha absorption is blue-shifted by 9000 km/s.

     Rupak Roy, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences,
Nainital; and Sayan Chakraborti, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
Mumbai, on behalf of a larger collaboration, report that SN 2012A is a
type-IIP supernova.  Medium-resolution slit spectroscopy (range 350-750 nm)
was acquired at the IUCAA Girawali Observatory on Jan. 10, showing broad
H_alpha and H_beta features.  With the help of the SNID code (Blondin and
Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024), they find the spectra to be most similar to
that of the type-IIP supernova 2004et at age 1.9 days before maximum (age from
explosion 14.2 days).  The spectra are also similar to SN 2008in (also a
type-IIP event; Chakraborti et al. 2008, CBET 1638) before maximum light.


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 January 12                  (CBET 2975)              Daniel W. E. Green