Electronic Telegram No. 2690
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 2011bh IN NGC 2431 = PSN J07451362+5304107
     J. Newton and T. Puckett report the discovery of an apparent supernova
(mag 17.5) on unfiltered CCD images (limiting mag 19.4) taken with a 0.40-m
reflector at Portal, AZ, U.S.A., on Mar. 29.125 UT in the course of the
Puckett Observatory Supernova Search.  The new object (which was designated
PSN J07451362+5304107 when posted on the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and
is here designated SN 2011bh based on the spectroscopic report below) is
located at R.A. = 7h45m13s.62, Decl. = +53o04'10".7 (equinox 2000.0), which
is 1".4 east and 20".2 south of the center of NGC 2431.  Additional unfiltered
CCD magnitudes for 2011bh:  Mar. 17, [19.0 (Puckett); 30.101, 17.4 (Puckett);
30.190, 17.1 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia; remotely using a 51-cm
RCOS telescope + STL11K camera at New Mexico Skies Observatory, Mayhill, NM,
U.S.A.; position end figures 13s.59, 09".2); 31.532, 17.5: (Kuniaki Goto,
Japan, 35-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope + SBIG ST-8XME camera; possible
independent discovery; communicated by J. Watanabe, National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan; only approximate position given).  Brimacombe's image
is posted at website URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/5573455901/.

     G. H. Marion, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), on
behalf of the CfA Supernova Group, reports that a spectrum (range 340-740 nm)
of PSN J07451362+5304107 = SN 2011bh was obtained on Apr. 3 UT by Marion with
the F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope (+ FAST).  Cross-correlation
with a library of supernova spectra using the "Supernova Identification" code
(SNID; Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024) shows that 2011bh is a type-Ic
supernova near maximum light.


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2011 CBAT
2011 April 10                    (CBET 2690)              Daniel W. E. Green