Electronic Telegram No. 4189
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Mailing address:  Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
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Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


SUPERNOVA 2015ao IN ESO 354-G3 = PSN J01505356-3600308
     Greg Bock, Runaway Bay, Queensland, Australia, reports his discovery of
an apparent supernova (red mag 17.7) on a 30-s unfiltered CCD image (limiting
mag 17.5) taken by himself on Oct. 6.55 UT with a 35-cm Meade LX200R f/7
reflector (+ ST10 camera) at his Runaway Bay Observatory in the course of the
Backyard Observatory Supernova Search.  The new object is located at R.A. =
1h50m53s.56, Decl. = -36d00'30".8 (equinox J2000.0; reference stars from
USNO-B and UCAC4 catalogues), which is 11".5 east and 15".4 north of the
nucleus of the galaxy ESO 354-G3.  Nothing is visible at this position on
Digitized Sky Survey red and infrared images (limiting red magnitude > 19).
The variable was designated PSN J01505356-3600308 when it was posted at the
Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2015ao based on the
spectroscopic confirmation reported below.

     G. Hosseinzadeh, I. Arcavi, D. A. Howell, and C. McCully, Las Cumbres
Observatory Global Telescope Network and University of California at Santa
Barbara; and S. Valenti, University of California at Davis, report that a
spectrogram of PSN J01505356-3600308 = SN 2015ao, obtained on Oct. 16.7 UT
with the robotic FLOYDS instrument (range 320-1000 nm, resolution 2 nm)
mounted on the "Faulkes Telescope South" at Siding Spring Observatory, shows
it to be a 1991bg-like type-Ia supernova.  Using SNID (Blondin and Tonry
2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024), they find good fits to SN 1991bg a few days after
maximum light at the redshift of the proposed host galaxy (z = 0.019;
Lauberts and Valentijn 1989, The Surface Photometry Catalogue of the
ESO-Uppsala Galaxies; via NED).


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                         (C) Copyright 2015 CBAT
2015 November 18                 (CBET 4189)              Daniel W. E. Green