Circular No. 7576

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)

SUPERNOVA 2001P IN NGC 3947

W. D. Li, University of California at Berkeley, on behalf of LOTOSS (cf. IAUC 7514), reports the discovery of a supernova (mag about 17.5) on unfiltered images taken with the 0.8-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) on Jan. 31.4 and Feb. 1.3 UT. SN 2001P is located at R.A. = 11h53m21s.56, Decl. = +20o44'53".3 (equinox 2000.0), which is 17".2 east and 13".1 south of the nucleus of NGC 3947. A KAIT image taken on Jan. 7.4 showed nothing at this position (limiting mag about 19.0).

A. V. Filippenko, R. Chornock, and M. Modjaz, University of California, Berkeley, report that inspection of CCD spectra (range 330-1000 nm), obtained on Feb. 1 UT with the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observatory, reveals that SN 2001P is a type-Ia supernova, roughly 1 week past maximum brightness. Some spectral features (e.g., Ti II absorption near 430 nm) suggest that it might be subluminous.

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Host galaxy info: V = 6197 km/s, 1.4'x1.2', 13.88, (R)SB(rs)b

SN type info: Ia-pec

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