KAIT Discovery and Follow-up Observations of a Possible Young Supernova Candidate in UGC 3777: PSN J07164258+2951227
ATel #7125; W. Zheng, P. Kelly, A. V. Filippenko (UC Berkeley)
on 23 Feb 2015; 10:15 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Weikang Zheng (zwk@umich.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae
We report the discovery, with the 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory, of a possible new supernova in the nearby galaxy UGC 3777 (z = 0.010717). The object, dubbed (by the IAU) PSN J07164258+2951227, is located at (J2000.0) coordinates RA = 07:16:42.58, Dec = +29:51:22.7. Following discovery in an unfiltered image obtained at 05:11 UT on 2015 Feb. 23, we manually started a sequence of follow-up observations in the B, V, R, I, and clear (roughly R) filters beginning about 1.3 hours later. Using stars from the USNO-B1 catalog for reference, we measure R = 17.2 mag at this time. The object was not detected in a previous KAIT image taken four days earlier, on Feb. 19, with a limit of R ~ 18.5 mag, indicating that the object might be young if it is a SN. Spectroscopic observations are encouraged. A finding chart is available at the following website: http://astro.berkeley.edu/~zwk/findingchart/PSN_J07164258+29512272.jpg
