Circular No. 7149

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)

POSSIBLE SUPERNOVA IN NGC 3198

W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley, on behalf of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (cf. IAUC 6627, 7126), reports the discovery on unfiltered CCD images taken on Apr. 20.2 UT with the 0.8-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) of a variable star (mag about 17.8) near NGC 3198. Inspection of earlier images taken by KAIT reveals that the object was clearly present on Apr. 15.2 (mag about 18.4) and 19.2 (mag about 18.0). The new object is located at R.A. = 10h19m46s.81, Decl. = +45o31'35".0 (equinox 2000.0), which is about 85".8 west and 83".8 south of the nucleus of NGC 3198. KAIT images of the same field on Apr. 3.2 (limiting mag about 17.5), Mar. 29.2 (limiting mag about 17.5), and Mar. 24.2 (limiting mag about 19.0) showed nothing at the position of the new object. SN 1966J, one of the prototype-Ib supernovae, also occurred in NGC 3198 and had a peak magnitude of B = 11.2.

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Host galaxy info: V = 663 km/s, 8.5'x3.3', SB(rs)c

SN type info: SN IIn

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