[IAUC] CBET 1184: 20071230 : 2007sv

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 1184
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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CBAT en CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
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2007sv
     A. Harutyunyan, H. Navasardyan, S. Benetti, and M. Turatto, Istituto
Nazionale di Astrofisica, Padua; A. Pastorello, Queen's University; and S.
Taubenberger, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, report that inspection
of a low-signal-to-noise CCD spectrogram obtained on Dec. 29.96 UT with the
Asiago 1.82-m telescope at Mt. Ekar (+ AFOSC) reveals that the spectrum of
2007sv (cf. CBET 1182) has a blue continuum with unresolved (FWHM < 1000
km/s) H Balmer lines in emission.  The spectral characteristics of 2007sv,
together with its faint absolute magnitude (around -14, assuming association
with UGC 5979), suggest that this object might not be a real supernova but
a super-outburst of a luminous blue variable similar to 1997bs [Van Dyk et
al. 2000 (PASP 112, 1532) suggested that 1997bs was less likely to be a
type-IIn supernova, as reported on IAUC 6627, than a superoutburst of a very
massive luminous blue variable star].


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                         (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 December 30                 (CBET 1184)              Daniel W. E. Green