ATLAS discovery of an optical transient
ATel #9400; J. Tonry, L. Denneau, B. Stalder, A. Heinze, A. Sherstyuk (IfA, University of Hawaii), A. Rest (STScI), K. W. Smith, S. J. Smartt (Queen's University Belfast)
on 23 Aug 2016; 12:51 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Supernovae
Credential Certification: Ken Smith (k.w.smith@qub.ac.uk)
Subjects: Optical, Supernovae, Transient
We report the following transient found by the ATLAS survey (see Tonry et al. ATel #8680). ATLAS is a twin 0.5m telescope system on Haleakala and Mauna Loa. The first unit is operational on Haleakala is robotically surveying the sky. Two filters are used, cyan and orange (denoted c and o, all mags in AB system), more information is on http://www.fallingstar.com. The transient has been registered with the IAU.
Host galaxy identifications and redshifts are from NED or the Pan-STARRS1 3Pi image stack, and absolute magnitude calculations include an estimate of Milky Way foreground extinction at the filter wavelength.
Name | ATLAS Name | RA (J2000) | Dec (J2000) | Disc. MJD | Disc. Date | Disc Mag | z | Notes
AT2016ffh | ATLAS16cpu | 15:11:49.48 | +46:15:03.2 | 57620.27 | 20160820.27 | 17.46 o | 0.018204 | 1.
1. NED reports that the likely host (15.6 arcsec away) is CGCG 249-011 with spectroscopic z=0.018204, hence mu=34.44, A_o=0.056, M_o=-17.04. Forced photometry reveals ~3sigma detections at -22d (o ~ 19.2), -7d (o ~ 18.9) and -3d (o ~ 18.8), indicating slow rise until the first > 5sigma detection (o = 17.46), assuming these are real detections and not contamination by galaxy flux.
