Electronic Telegram No. 3283
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 2012fx IN ESO 417-3 = PSN J02554120-2725276
     L. A. G. Monard, Calitzdorp, Western Cape, South Africa, reports his
discovery of an apparent supernova (magnitude 17.2) on unfiltered CCD images
taken on Aug. 22.133 and 23.114 UT with a 30-cm RCX400 telescope at the Klein
Karoo Observatory.  The new object is located at R.A. = 2h55m41s.20, Decl. =
-27d25'27".6 (equinox 2000.0; UCAC2 reference stars), is which is 11" east and
4" south of the core of the Sc-type galaxy ESO 417-3.  Nothing is visible at
this position earlier images taken by Monard (limit magnitude 18.5 and deeper)
or on red Digitized Sky Survey images down to mag 20.5.  The variable was
designated PSN J02554120-2725276 when it was posted at the Central Bureau's
TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012fx based on the spectroscopic
confirmation reported below.  Additional CCD magnitudes for 2012fx:  Mar.
12.76, [18.0 (Monard); Aug. 23.808, 19.1 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia;
infrared filter; wavelength > 700 nm; position end figures 41s.27, 26".3;
image posted at URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/7847465058/);
24.056, 17.1 (Monard); 24.720, R = 17.8 (Brimacombe; position end figures
41s.25, 26".1); 25.947, 16.7 (Monard).  Brimacombe's Aug. 24 image is posted
at website URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/7867173774/.

     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 Aug. 26 with the New Technology
Telescope (+ EFOSC2), show that PSN J02554120-2725276 = SN 2012fx is a 1991bg-
like type-Ia supernova at redshift z = 0.020; the best fit is to the spectrum
of SN 1998de at two days before maximum light.  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 3283)              Daniel W. E. Green