2004IAUC.8288....4L

Li, Filippenko, Chornock, and Foley also report that there is no supernova 2003lr (cf. IAUC 8266) in UGC 2904. Further inspection of the KAIT images taken on 2003 Dec. 28.23 and 2004 Jan. 10.19 UT reveals that two different minor planets were imaged at nearly the same location (7" positional difference): (42805) 1999 JU_1 on Dec. 28, and (42671) 1998 HQ_68 on Jan. 10. Remarkably, a Keck-I CCD spectrum of an object close to the putative position of the supernova, obtained on 2004 Feb. 13.32, revealed yet another minor planet, (23017) 1999 VQ_190. A KAIT image taken on Jan. 16.2 showed nothing at the position of 2003lr (limiting mag about 19.0).