PTF discovery of PTF10abyy, a young Type II Supernova

ATel #3091; A. Gal-Yam, O. Yaron, S. Ben-Ami, A. Sternberg, Y. Green, D. Xu, I Arcavi (WIS), M. M. Kasliwal, R. M. Quimby, E. O. Ofek, S. R. Kulkarni (CIT), H. Ebeling (IfA) P. Nugent (LBNL), D. A. Howell, (LCOGT/UCSB), M. Sullivan (Oxford), J. S. Bloom (UC Berkeley) and N. M. Law (U. Toronto) on behalf of the Core-Collapse working group of the Palomar Transient Factory collaboration
on 27 Dec 2010; 08:49 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Avishay Gal-Yam (avishay.gal-yam@weizmann.ac.il)

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The PTF (ATEL #1964; http://www.astro.caltech.edu/ptf/ ) reports the discovery of a new supernova, PTF10abyy. The supernova was discovered by Oarical, an autonomous software framework of the PTF collaboration, on December 8 UT at RA(J2000) = 05:16:40.52 and DEC(J2000) = +06:47:53.8 at a magnitude of 18.7 in R-band (calibrated with respect to the USNOB1 catalog). The supernova was not detected down to mag 21 in previous PTF images taken during Dec. 2010 (3-sigma). A spectrum was obtained using the LRIS Spectrograph (Oke et al. 1995, PASP, 107, 375) on the 10-m Keck telescope on Dec. 9 UT by H. Ebeling, revealing the supernova to be of type II. Blue continuum superposed with narrow emission lines of hydrogen and helium (including He II 4686) suggest a young SN IIn at z=0.0297. We have triggered our cycle 6 GALEX UV spectroscopy program, and GALEX will observe this target until Jan. 6, 2011. Follow-up at all wavelengths is encouraged.