2003IAUC.8169....2G

A. Gal-Yam and D. Maoz, Tel Aviv University; F. Prada, Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, IAC; and P. Guhathakurta, University of California, Santa Cruz, report the discovery of a supernova (V about 21) on unfiltered images taken by Maoz on 2002 June 9 with the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope (+ ALFOSC) at La Palma. SN 2002lh was located at R.A. = 14h44m20s.38, Decl. = +31o15'44".4 (equinox 2000.0), in the field of the galaxy cluster Abell 1961 (z = 0.232). SN 2002lh was invisible on images obtained in April 2002 (limiting mag V about 24.0). A. V. Filippenko and R. Chornock, University of California, Berkeley; and G. Smith, University of California, Santa Cruz, report that inspection of a CCD spectrum (range 550-930 nm), obtained by Smith on 2002 June 16 with the Keck-I telescope (+ LRIS spectrograph), reveals the object to be a type-Ia supernova, then near maximum brightness. The redshift (measured from narrow nebular lines from the host galaxy) is 0.236, consistent with that of the cluster Abell 1961.