2003IAUC.8122....3K

R. Kotak and W. P. S. Meikle, Imperial College, London, on behalf of the European Supernova Collaboration, report that a spectrum (range about 500-760 nm) of SN 2003du (cf. IAUC 8121), obtained at the Isaac Newton Telescope (+ IDS spectrograph) by P. Rodriguez-Gil on Apr. 24.06 UT, shows the characteristic Si II 615- nm absorption feature indicating that it is of type Ia. Comparison with the spectra of SN 2002bo indicates a phase of approximately 2 weeks before maximum light (-13 ± 2 days). The depths of the features, relative to the continuum, appear somewhat more shallow than in SN 2002bo.