SIMBAD references

W. Li and A. V. Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley; and S. D. Van Dyk, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, report that SN 2004et was imaged on Sept. 30 UT with the 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory, yielding position end figures 25s.37, 17".8 (equinox 2000.0; uncertainty about 0".2 in each coordinate). A faint object, possibly extended, appears at this location on multi-band images of NGC 6946 taken with the Kitt Peak 0.9-m telescope on 1989 May 30. Based on calibrations of the field on three photometric nights with the Lick Nickel 1-m telescope, they measure the object at R = 20.8 ± 0.2, adding that it was not detected in the Kitt Peak B- and I-band images (B > 21.3, I > 19.7). Using a distance of 5.5 Mpc to NGC 6946 (Shapley et al. 2001, Ap.J. Suppl. 137, 139), and E(B-V) = 0.41 mag (from Zwitter and Munari, above), the absolute magnitudes of the object are M_B > -9.1, M_R = -8.9, and M_I > -9.7. The high luminosity makes it likely to be a star cluster rather than a single star. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be Hubble Space Telescope or KAIT pre-explosion images of the site of SN 2004et.