Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Possible Supernova 2014L in M99 galaxy

Following the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Supernova in M99 spiral galaxy (TOCP Designation: PSN J12184868+1424435) we performed some follow-up of this object through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer from MPC Code H06 (iTelescope, New Mexico).

On our images taken on January 28.4, 2014 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with unfiltered CCD magnitude 15.7 and at coordinates:

R.A. = 12 18 48.73, Decl.= +14 24 44.3

(equinox 2000.0; UCAC-3 catalogue reference stars).

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)


An animation showing a comparison between our confirmation image of this transient in M99 and archive image by 2-meter telescope FTN - LCOGT (dated back to April 18, 2013). Click on the thumbnail below for a bigger version:


Before the discovery of this transient,  three supernovae were observed in M99: 1967H (type II), 1972Q (type IIP)and 1986I (type IIP).

UPDATE - January 30, 2014

According to Cbet 3795 issued on January 30, PSN J12184868+1424435 is a type-Ic supernova with official designation 2014L. The supernova has been discovered on unfiltered CCD images taken on Jan. 26.83 UT using the 0.6-m NAOC Schmidt telescope in the course of the THU-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS). 

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Martino Nicolini

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