2008CBET.1515....1G

Veli-Pekka Hentunen and Markku Nissinen, Kangaslampi, Varkaus, Finland, report their discovery of an apparent supernova (red mag 18.4) on 90- and 250-s CCD images (limiting unfiltered mag 19.8; limiting Bessel-R-filtered mag 19.1) taken with a Meade 30.5-cm LX200 GPS/UHTC/OTA f/10 telescope (+ SBIG ST8-XME camera) on Sept. 23.80 UT; confirming 90- and 200-s images taken on Sept. 24.79 show the new object at red mag 18.1. SN 2008ft is located at R.A. = 3h50m18s.54, Decl. = +70o05'46".4 (equinox 2000.0), which is 18" east and 6" north of the center of the galaxy UGC 2866. Nothing is visible at this position on a Palomar Sky Survey F plate (limiting red mag 20.8). There is a bright area at the position of 2008ft on a Palomar Sky Survey N (near-infrared) plate, but when they compare images of 2008ft to the discoverers' own reference images from Aug. 29/30, they note a very clear brightening at this position.