Electronic Telegram No. 3366
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 2012ih IN PGC 19908 = PSN J06564291+4854103
     Tianmeng Zhang and Xu Zhou, National Astronomical Observatories of China
(NAOC); and Juncheng Chen and Xiaofeng Wang, Tsinghua University (THU), report
the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 16.4) on unfiltered CCD images
taken on Dec. 10.75 UT using the 0.6-m NAOC Schmidt telescope in the course
of the THU-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS).  The object, which was confirmed at
magnitude about 17.5 on an image obtained on Dec. 25.70, is located at R.A. =
6h56m42s.91, Decl. = +48d54'10".3 (equinox 2000.0), which is about 7" west and
4" north of the center of the galaxy PGC 19908.  Nothing is visible at this
position on archival images obtained on Nov. 21 (limiting mag about 20.0) or
on Digitized Sky Survey.  The TNTS reference images are posted at website URL
http://www.thca.tsinghua.edu.cn/~wangxf/TNTS/PSNJ06564291+4854103.  The
variable was designated PSN J06564291+4854103 when it was posted at the
Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012ih based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.

     L. Tomasella, S. Benetti, A. Pastorello, E. Cappellaro, P. Ochner, and M.
Turatto, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica,
report that optical spectroscopy (range 340-820 nm; resolution 1.3 nm),
obtained on Dec. 26.97 UT with the Asiago 1.82-m Copernico Telescope (+ AFOSC),
shows that PSN J06564291+4854103 = SN 2012ih is a type-Ia supernova.  Adopting
for the host galaxy (PGC 19908) the redshift z = 0.019320 (Falco et al. 1999,
PASP 111, 438; via NED), the best fit is obtained with type-Ia supernovae
2007bm and 1999gp (Krisciunas et al. 2001, A.J. 122, 1616) about three weeks
after maximum light.  The expansion velocity, as deduced from the position of
the Si II 635.5-nm absorption, is about 8600 km/s.  The Asiago classification
spectra are posted at website URL http://graspa.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 2012 CBAT
2012 December 30                 (CBET 3366)              Daniel W. E. Green