KAIT Discovery and Robotic Follow-up of a young SN Ia in NGC5669

ATel #4823; W. Zheng, P. Blanchard, S. B. Cenko, A. V. Filippenko (UC Berkeley) and A. Cucchiara (UCO/Lick Observatory)
on 18 Feb 2013; 23:47 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Weikang Zheng (zwk@umich.edu)

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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 NGC 5669. The new object, dubbed PSN J14324449+0953123 (by the IAU), is located at (J2000.0) coordinates RA = 14:32:44.49, Dec = +09:53:12.3. Following discovery in an unfiltered image obtained at 12:59 UT on 2013 Feb. 17, KAIT autonomously began a sequence of triggered follow-up observations in the U, B, V, and clear (roughly R) filters beginning only 4 minutes later. Using stars from the USNO-B1 catalog for reference, we measure R = 17.6 mag at this time. Previous KAIT imaging on 2013 Feb. 15 revealed no emission at this location to a limit of R > 18.5 mag. A CCD spectrum (range 340-800 nm) of the object was obtained on Feb. 18 UT with the Kast double spectrograph on the Shane 3-m telescope at Lick Observatory. It is dominated by a largely featureless blue continuum, with superimposed narrow emission lines from the underlying host galaxy, consistent with the reported redshift of 0.0046. These properties are suggestive of a very young Type II supernova, and further observations are encouraged.