2011CBET.2777....3M

D. Milisavljevic and R. Fesen, Dartmouth College; K. Nordsieck, University of Wisconsin; and T. Pickering, A. Gulbis, and D. O'Donoghue, South African Astronomical Observatory, on behalf of a larger SALT Commissioning Team, report that low-dispersion spectra (range 320-900 nm), obtained July 29.8 UT with the 10-m SALT telescope (+ RSS), show PSN J20342262-3158236 = SN 2011ei to be a type-II supernova. Comparison with spectra retrieved from the Supernova Spectrum Archive (SUSPECT; see the following website URL: http://bruford.nhn.ou.edu/~suspect/index.html) shows a good match to the energetic type-IIb 'hypernova' 2003bg at approximately 7 days before maximum light (Hamuy et al. 2009, Ap.J. 703, 1612). Assuming a redshift of z = 0.0093 for the host galaxy, NGC 6925 (Koribalski et al. 2004, A.J. 128, 16), the H-alpha P-Cyg profile shows broad emission spanning 622-700 nm with a relatively shallow absorption minimum blueshifted around -15700 km/s.