ROTSE-III Discovery of a Supernova Candidate

ATel #2806; W. Zheng and F. Yuan (University of Michigan); J. Vinko (University of Szeged); R. Quimby (California Institute of Technology); A. Romadan, N. Whallon, Y. Chen, C. Akerlof, and S. B. Pandey (University of Michigan); J. C. Wheeler and E. Chatzopoulos (University of Texas), on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration
on 20 Aug 2010; 15:00 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Weikang Zheng (zwk@umich.edu)

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We report the discovery of a SN candidate, ROTSE3 J230425.1-432351, in unfiltered CCD images taken on July 31.93 UT with the 0.45-m ROTSE-IIIc telescope at the H.E.S.S. site in Namibia at about 18.5 mag. The transient was detected again from ROTSE-IIIc, and the light curve showed some fluctuation due to uncertainty in the following ~10 days. It then started brighten form about 18.8 mag on Aug. 8.97 UT to about 18.5 mag on Aug. 12.97 UT, and decayed to about 18.8 mag on Aug. 17.93 UT. The new object is located at RA= 23h04m25s.07, Dec= -43o23'51".4 (with about 1" uncertainty), which is 7.0" east and 2.8" north to the center of galaxy USNO_B1.0 0466-0773353 (RA=23h04m24s.42, Dec=-43o23'54".1). No source was detected at this location in the ROTSE-IIIc image (limit ~18.5 mag) before July 30th UT. A finding chart of the transient is posted at the following website URL: http://www.rotse.net/rsvp/j230425.1-432351/j230425.1-432351.jpg