La Silla-QUEST detection and Lick Spectroscopic confirmation of Type Ia SN (LSQ11ot)
ATel #3826; E. Hadjiyska (Yale), D. Rabinowitz (Yale), C. Baltay (Yale), N. Ellman (Yale), R. McKinnon (Yale), P. Nugent (LBNL), J. M. Silverman (UC Berkeley)
on 25 Dec 2011; 04:01 UT
Credential Certification: Ellie Hadjiyska (ellie.hadjiyska@yale.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae
We report the discovery of a Type Ia SN on December 23.068 (when the variable was at magnitude R = 18.3), as part of the La Silla-QUEST (LSQ) transient survey conducted with Yale University's 160-megapixel QUEST camera on the 1.0-m Schmidt Telescope of the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile (Rabinowitz et al. 2011, Ap.J. 732, 512). Photometry is calibrated to the USNO catalog. The source's position is RA = 05:15:48.3, Dec = +06:46:39.0 (J2000). Follow up LSQ observations taken during December 16-23 UT reveal a gradual brightness increase by > 2 mag. J. M. Silverman, University of California, Berkeley, reports that inspection of a CCD spectrum (range 340-1000 nm), obtained on December 24 UT with the 3-m Shane reflector (+ Kast Spectrograph) at Lick Observatory, shows that LSQ11ot is a young type Ia supernova approximately 10 days before peak brightness at a redshift of z=0.026.
