[IAUC] CBET 1200: 20080110 : SUPERNOVA 2008B IN NGC 5829

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 1200
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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SUPERNOVA 2008B IN NGC 5829
      S. Blondin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), on
behalf of the CfA Supernova Group, reports that a spectrum (range 350-740 nm)
of 2008B (cf. CBET 1194), obtained on Jan. 10.55 UT by M. Calkins with the
F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope (+ FAST), shows it to be a type-IIn
supernova around maximum light.  Cross-correlation with a library of supernova
spectra using the "Supernova Identification" code (SNID; Blondin and Tonry
2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024) indicates that 2008A is most similar to the type-IIn
supernova 2000eo at two days before maximum.  The spectrum consists of a blue
continuum and emission lines of the Balmer series, with a narrow component of
about 500 km/s (FWHM for H_alpha) superposed on a weaker and broader component
of about 3800 km/s (FWHM for H_alpha).  The H_alpha and H_beta profiles also
display a narrow absorption component, present in early-time spectra of some
type-IIn supernovae.
     Corrigendum.  On CBET 1194, last line, FOR  from 1991 (limiting
magnitude 18.6).  READ  from 1991.


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                         (C) Copyright 2008 CBAT
2008 January 10                  (CBET 1200)              Daniel W. E. Green