2003IAUC.8152....1K

R. Kotak and W. P. S. Meikle, Imperial College, London, and S. J. Smartt, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, on behalf of the European Supernova Collaboration, report that a spectrum (range about 400-840 nm) of SN 2003gd was obtained at the William Herschel Telescope (+ ISIS spectrograph) by C. Benn on June 14.2 UT. Comparison of a preliminary reduction of the spectrum with spectra of SN 1992H and SN 1987A (Filippenko 1997, ARAA 35, 309) indicates that the new supernova is of type II, roughly 2 months post- explosion. The strong H_alpha P-Cyg profile extends from -8800 to +7100 km/s in the host-galaxy rest frame.