SIMBAD references

F. Yuan, University of Michigan; R. Quimby, California Institute of Technology; D. Chamarro, University of Michigan; A. Uecker, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; M. D. Sisson and C. Akerlof, University of Michigan; and J. C. Wheeler, University of Texas, on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration, report the discovery of a supernova (mag about 17.1) on an unfiltered CCD image taken on Aug. 4.17 UT (found by subtracting a reference image built from images taken in Aug. 2007) with the 0.45-m ROTSE-IIIb telescope at McDonald Observatory. The new object is located at R.A. = 16h21m48s.53, Decl. = +37o03'41".0 (equinox 2000.0; uncertainty < 1"), which is 2".1 north of the center of the apparent host galaxy (whose SDSS redshift is z = 0.030). SN 2008fn was observed to rise to mag about 16.8 on Aug. 10.18 and then decay to mag about 17.4 on Aug. 20.14. A finding chart of 2008fn can be found at the following website URL: http://www.rotse.net/rsvp/j162148.53+370341/j162148.53+370341.jpg. The ROTSE magnitudes quoted above are unfiltered, calibrated to R magnitudes from the USNO-B1.0 catalogue.