2006CBET..608....1E

N. Elias-Rosa, S. Benetti, E. Cappellaro and A. Harutyunyan, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova; A. Pastorello, Queen's University, Belfast; and P. Mazzali and S. Taubenberger, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astrophysik, Garching, report that a spectrum of SN 2006en (cf. CBET 606, IAUC 8741), obtained on Aug. 28.9 UT by G. Andreuzzi with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (+ Dolores; grism LR-B, spectral range 350-800 nm, resolution 1.2 nm), shows it to be a normal type-Ia supernova around maximum light. Adopting the NED recession velocity of 9575 km/s for the parent galaxy (from Falco et al. 2000, "The Updated Zwicky Catalog", and 1999, PASP 111, 438), the expansion velocity deduced from the Si II 635.5-nm minimum is 10200 km/s. An interstellar Na I D absorption feature is visible in the host galaxy rest frame with EW about 2 nm, suggesting a reddening E(B-V) > 0.3 mag [Turatto et al. 2003, in *From Twilight to Highlight the Physics of Supernovae*, ed. by Leibundgut and Hillebrandt (Springer-Verlag), p. 200]. Taking into account the apparent magnitudes reported on CBET 606, it would appear that SN 2006en is an extremely luminous object, but this seems inconsistent with the above spectrophotometry and with the normal expansion velocity.