[vsnet-alert 1755] Supernova in NGC 3368 = Messier 96

[bas@lowell.Lowell.Edu (Brian Skiff)]

     Mirko Villi in Italy has found (on May 9.9 UT) an apparent supernova
in the bright galaxy Messier 96.  He reports that it is located about 50 arcsec
north of the center of the galaxy and about mag. 13.5.
     I have made a visual confirmation of this object using the Lowell 53cm
telescope at May 10.33 UT.  The position estimate seems to be correct based
on offsets using the telescope's photometer diaphragms.  If anything, the
star has become quite a bit brighter in the intervening 6-8 hours, and must
be at least mag. 12.5 if not 12.0---because of the Full Moonlight and high
aerosols scattering it, I could see nothing in the field except the galaxy
nucleus and the new star.
     There is no asteroid here in either the Minor Planet Center's search
widget or from our local asteroid database.  The object does not appear on
various images of the galaxy (Vickers, Hubble/Carnegie, POSS, Wray color
atlas, etc.).

\Brian

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