2006CBET..452....1P

F. Patat, European Southern Observatory (ESO); A. Boselli, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille; S. Benetti and H. Navasardyan, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica; M. Dennefeld, Insitut d'Astrophysique de Paris; D. Baade, ESO; and L. Wang, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, report that spectrograms, obtained on Mar. 29.01 UT with the 1.93-m telescope at Haute-Provence Observatory (+ Carelec spectrograph; range 370-780 nm, resolution 0.7 nm) and on Mar. 29.30 with the ESO Very Large Telescope (+ FORS1 in polarimetric mode; range 340-840 nm, resolution 1.2 nm), show that SN 2006be (cf. CBET 449, IAUC 8693) is a type-II supernova. The spectrum is dominated by broad P-Cyg lines of hydrogen, Ca II, and Fe II. The intensities of the Na I D-He I 587.6-nm feature and of the feature visible on the blue wing of the H-alpha absorption suggest a phase of about two weeks past explosion (Pastorello et al. 2006, MNRAS, submitted). The expansion velocity, deduced from the H-beta absorption feature, is about 8100 km/s (the recession velocity of the parent galaxy is assumed to be 2145 km/s, from de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, Third Reference Cat. of Bright Galaxies, via NED). Narrow galactic and interstellar absorption lines of Na I D are present with equivalent widths of 0.04 and 0.07 nm, respectively, suggesting that the light from the supernova could suffer significant extinction. Preliminary spectropolarimetric analysis of FORS1 data shows a mild linear polarization, at the level of 1 percent, on the minimum of the H-alpha absorption through. G. C. Anupama, D. K. Sahu, and G. Uday Kumar, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, report that a spectrogram (range 350-740 nm) of SN 2006be, obtained on Mar. 28.95 UT with the Indian Astronomical Observatory's 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (+ HFOSC), shows it to be a young type-II supernova. The spectrum contains P-Cyg profiles of Balmer series. Adopting a redshift of z = 0.007155 (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies, Version 3.9), the absorption in H-alpha is blueshifted by about 9000 km/s. The spectrum is very similar to that of SN 1999em about 15-20 days past maximum (Leonard et al. 2002, PASP 114, 35).