Electronic Telegram No. 3844 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 2014aj IN UGC 3252 = PSN J05114396+6729294 Syuichi Nakano, Sumoto, Japan, reports the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 17.3) by Koichi Itagaki (Teppo-cho, Yamagata, Japan) on an unfiltered CCD frame (limiting magnitude 19.5) taken on Mar. 24.465 UT using a 0.50-m f/6 reflector. The new object is located at R.A. = 5h11m43s.96, Decl. = +67d29'29".4 (equinox 2000.0; UCAC4 reference stars), which is located 7".8 west and 11".7 north of the center of the galaxy UGC 3252 (which itself has position end figures 45s.32, 17".7). Itagaki posted his discovery image at website URL http://k-itagaki.chicappa.jp/images/U3252.jpg. The variable was designated PSN J05114396+6729294 when it was posted at the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2014aj based on the spectroscopic confirmation reported below. SN 2003gw also appeared in UGC 3252 (cf. IAUC 8176). Additional CCD magnitudes for 2014aj: 2011 Nov. 1.789, [19.5 (Itagaki; 0.60-m f/5.7 reflector); 2014 Mar. 3.469, [18.5 (Itagaki; 0.50-m reflector at Takanezawa); 24.526, 17.5 (Toshihide Noguchi, Katori, Chiba-ken, Japan; 0.23-m Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector + BITRAN BT-11E camera; eight stacked 30-s frames; limiting mag 18.5; position end figures 44s.00, 29".5; UCAC4 reference stars; image posted at URL http://park8.wakwak.com/~ngc/images/PSNinU3252.jpg; communicated by Nakano); 24.960, 16.9 (Gianluca Masi, Francesca Nocentini, and Patrick Schmeer; remotely with a 43-cm telescope near Ceccano, Italy; position end figures 43s.91, 28".7); 25.116, R = 17.6 (L. Elenin, Lyubertsy, Russia, and I. Molotov, Moscow, Russia; remotely with a 0.4-m f/3 telescope at the ISON-NM Observatory near Mayhill, NM, USA; position end figures 43s.81 +/- 0".1, 28".6 +/- 0".1; UCAC-4 reference stars; limiting magnitude about 19.1); 25.216, 17.8 (Joseph Brimacombe, remotely using a 51-cm RCOS telescope + STXL-6303 camera at the New Mexico Skies observatory near Mayhill; image posted at URL https://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/13420329304/); 28.067, 16.9 (F. Luppi and L. Buzzi, Varese, Italy; 0.60-m reflector; position end figures 43s.85, 29".3; reference stars from PPMXL catalogue; image posted at http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_U3252.jpg); 28.550, R = 17.5 (T. Yusa, Y. Suzuki, and K. Kato, Osaki, Japan; 0.30-m f/7 reflector; limiting mag 19.0; position end figures 43s.44, 28".8; iamge posted at URL http://space.geocities.jp/yusastar77/supernova/PSNinU3252_140328.htm). L. Tomasella, P. Ochner, S. Benetti, E. Cappellaro, N. Elias-Rosa, A. Pastorello, and M. Turatto, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, report that an optical spectrogram (range 340-820 nm; resolution 1.3 nm) of PSN J05114396+6729294 = SN 2014aj, obtained on Mar. 24.87 UT with the Asiago 1.82-m Copernico Telescope (+ AFOSC), shows it to be a type-Ia supernova. Adopting for the host galaxy (UGC 3252) a radial velocity of 6115 km/s (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, RC3.9, via NED), a good match is found with several type-Ia supernovae around one week before B-band maximum light. An expansion velocity of about 13900 km/s is derived from the minimum of the Si II 635-nm line. The Asiago classification spectra are posted at website URL http://sngroup.oapd.inaf.it; classification was made via GELATO (Harutyunyan et al. 2008, A.Ap. 488, 383) and SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024). NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars. (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT 2014 April 5 (CBET 3844) Daniel W. E. Green