2003IAUC.8228....1M

T. Matheson, P. Challis, and R. Kirshner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, report on spectra (range 370-750 nm) of several recently discovered supernovae, with all the spectrograms obtained by M. Calkins at the Mt. Hopkins 1.5-m telescope (+ FAST). The following type-Ia supernovae are listed with the time the spectrogram was obtained, the supernova spectral-feature age (given in days prior to maximum light), and their expansion velocities for Si II (rest 635.5 nm), with the adopted NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) recession velocity for the host galaxies given parenthetically: SN 2003it (cf. IAUC 8225), Oct. 19.18 UT, 4 ± 2, 11900 km/s (7531 km/s); SN 2003iu (cf. IAUC 8226), Oct. 20.38, 0 ± 2, 10400 (12320); SN 2003iv (cf. IAUC 8226), Oct. 19.38, 2 ± 2, 11100 (10285). A spectrogram of SN 2003ir (cf. IAUC 8221), obtained on Oct. 20.50, shows it to be a type-II supernova; adopting the NED recession velocity of 7657 km/s for the host galaxy, the expansion velocity derived from the minimum of the H_beta line is 5700 km/s. A spectrogram of SN 2003iw (cf. IAUC 8226), obtained on Oct. 20.14, shows a blue, almost featureless continuum; there is a weak feature that may be an incipient P-Cyg line of H_alpha, implying that this is an early type-II supernova.