Electronic Telegram No. 3279
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 2012ft = PSN J20313345-4409173
     Greg Bock, Windaroo, Queensland, Australia, reports the discovery of an
apparent supernova (mag 17.3) by Stuart Parker (Oxford, Canterbury, New
Zealand) on a 35-s unfiltered CCD image taken on Sept. 22.34 with a 30-cm
Astro-Tech AT12RC Ritchey-Chretien astrograph (+ ST10 camera), as part of a
collaboration by the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS).  The new
object is located at R.A. = 20h31m33s.45, Decl. = -44d09'17".3 (equinox
2000.0; measured by Bock), which is within an arc second southeast of
the center of the nucleus of the presumed host galaxy.  Parker obtained a
confirming image on Sept. 23.48 with a 35-cm Celestron reflector, adding
that nothing was visible at the position of the new object on an image that
he took on Sept. 12 (no limiting magnitude provided).  Nothing is visible
on red and infrared Digitized Sky Survey images (limiting red mag > 19).
The variable was designated PSN J20313345-4409173 when it was posted at the
Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012ft based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.  Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns,
Australia, writes that he obtained six 15-min images with an infrared
filter (wavelength > 700 nm) on Sept. 24.408, yielding mag 17.4 and
position end figures 33s.56, 17".2; he posted his image at the following
website URL:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/8042721429/.

     C. Inserra, S. J. Smartt, M. Fraser, D. Young, and K. Smith, Queen's
University, Belfast; F. Cellier-Holzem and P. El-Hage, Laboratoire de Physique
Nucleaire et de Hautes Energies, Paris; Y.-C. Pan, University of Oxford; M.
Sullivan, University of Southampton; I. Arcavi, A. Gal-Yam, and O. Yaron,
Wiezmann Institute of Science; S. Benetti, A. Pastorello, and S. Valenti,
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Padova; and S. Taubenberger, A. Sternberg,
and S. Benitez-Herrera, Max-Planck-Institute fuer Astrophysik, Garching, on
behalf of the PESSTO collaboration (see Valenti et al., posted at website URL
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=4037), report that optical
spectroscopy (range 360-910 nm), obtained on Oct. 9 with the New Technology
Telescope (+ EFOSC2), show that PSN J20313345-4409173 = SN 2012ft is a type-II
supernova at redshift z = 0.020; the best fit is to the spectra of type-II
supernovae around 10 days from explosion.  PESSTO classification spectra can
be obtained from website URL http://www.pessto.org/; classification is made
via SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024) and GELATO (Harutyunyan et
al. 2008, A.Ap. 488, 383).


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

                         (C) Copyright 2012 CBAT
2012 November 1                  (CBET 3279)              Daniel W. E. Green