Electronic Telegram No. 3959
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 2014cu = PSN J21504715-7355334
     S. Parker, Canterbury, New Zealand, reports the discovery of an apparent
supernova (red mag 18.1) on a 30-s unfiltered CCD image (limiting mag 18.5)
taken by himself on June 22.557 UT with a 30-cm Astro-Tech AT12RC Ritchey-
Chretien astrograph (+ ST10 camera) at his Parkdale Observatory in the course
of the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search.  The new object is located at
R.A. = 21h50m47s.15, Decl = -73d55'33".4 (equinox 2000.0; reference stars from
USNO-B and UCAC4 catalogues), which is 11" west and 2" north of the nucleus of
the galaxy PGC 252921.  Nothing is visible at this position on Digitized Sky
Survey red and infrared images (limiting red mag > 19).  An image of the
variable is viewable at website URL http://tinyurl.com/lr7xpl5.  The variable
was designated PSN J21504715-7355334 when it was posted at the Central
Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2014cu based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.  J. Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia,
reports that his images taken remotely on June 26.658 using a 41-cm RCOS
telescope (+ luminance filter) at the Warrumbungle Observatory at Siding
Spring yield mag 19.3 and position end figures 47s.00, 34".5 for 2014cu (image
posted at URL https://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/14523335912/).

     M. Childress, R. Scalzo, F. Yuan, B. Zhang, A. Ruiter, I. Seitenzahl, and
B. Schmidt, Australian National University (ANU); and B. Tucker, ANU and
University of California at Berkeley, report that spectroscopic classification
of PSN J21504715-7355334 = SN 2014cu was obtained on July 8.69 UT via a 60-min
exposure with the Wide Field Spectrograph (cf. Dopita et al. 2007, Ap. Space
Sci. 310, 255) on the ANU 2.3-m telescope at Siding Spring using the
B3000/R3000 gratings (wavelength range 350-980 nm at 0.1-nm resolution).  The
spectrum indicates that 2014cu is a type-II supernova a few weeks past maximum
light.  Classification with SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024)
shows a good match to SN 2004et at phase +20 days, and the preferred SNID
redshift is about 0.031, consistent with the apparent host galaxy (z = 0.0283;
Huchra et al. 2012, Ap.J. Suppl. 199, 26).


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      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 September 2                 (CBET 3959)              Daniel W. E. Green