KAIT Discovery of a Young SN Candidate in NGC 1418: PSN J03421688-0443185

ATel #5637; W. Zheng, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko (UC Berkeley), and S. B. Cenko (Goddard Space Flight Center)
on 7 Dec 2013; 03:42 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Weikang Zheng (zwk@umich.edu)

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W. Zheng, W. Li, A. V. Filippenko (UC Berkeley), and S. B. Cenko (Goddard Space Flight Center) 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 1418 (z=0.01417). The new object, dubbed PSN J03421688-0443185 (by the IAU), is located at (J2000.0) coordinates RA = 03:42:16.88, Dec = -04:43:18.5. Following discovery in an unfiltered image obtained at 07:31 UT on 2013 Dec. 06, KAIT autonomously began a sequence of triggered follow-up observations in the U, B, V, R, I, and clear (roughly R) filters beginning only 5 minutes later. Using stars from the USNO-B1 catalog for reference, we measure R = 18.0 mag at this time. Previous KAIT imaging on 2013 Dec. 04 revealed no emission at this location to a limit of R~18.5 mag, indicating the object might be a young SN. Further observations are encouraged. An finding chart was posted at the following website: http://astro.berkeley.edu/~zwk/findingchart/PSN_J03421688-04431848.jpg