2012CBET.2978....1N

J. Newton and T. Puckett report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 17.2) on an unfiltered CCD image (limiting mag 19.0) taken with a 0.40-m reflector at Portal, AZ, U.S.A., on Jan. 8.2033 UT in the course of the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search. The new object, which was confirmed at mag 17.2 on Jan. 9.210 by Puckett with the 40-cm reflector at Portal, is located at R.A. = 3:51:34.52, Decl. = +37:04:42.7 (equinox 2000.0), which is 5".0 east and 7".6 south of the center of PGC 13981. Nothing is visible at this position on images taken by Puckett on 2011 Dec. 27 (limiting mag 19.2). An image of the variable has been posted by the discoverers at the following website URL: http://www.possdata.com/PSNJ03513452+3704427.jpg. The new object was designated PSN J03513452+3704427 when it was posted at the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012B based on the spectroscopic confirmation reported below. Additional CCD magnitudes for 2012B (unfiltered unless noted otherwise): Jan. 10.043, 16.0 (R. A. Koff, Bennett, CO, USA; Meade 0.25-m f/10 reflector + Apogee AP-47p camera; bright moonlight; limiting magnitude 17.8; position end figures 34s.47, 42".2; UCAC3 reference stars); 10.134, 17.4 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia; remotely using a 51-cm RCOS telescope + STL11K camera + luminance filter at the New Mexico Skies Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.; position end figures 34s.51, 42".9); 10.959, 16.9 (Federica Luppi and Luca Buzzi, Varese, Italy, 0.38-m f/6.8 reflector; position end figures 34s.57, 43".1; reference stars from CMC-14 catalogue); 11.305, 17.3 (Brimacombe; position end figures 34s.53, 43".5); 11.454, R = 16.7 (P. Miller, P. Roche, A. Tripp, R. Miles, R. Holmes, S. Foglia, and L. Buzzi; 2.0-m f/10 "Faulkes Telescope North" + Bessell R filter at Haleakala; position end figures 34s.56, 43".0; reference stars from PPMXL catalogue); 16.783, R = 16.4 ± 0.1 (K. Sarneczky, Konkoly Observatory, Hungary; 1.02-m RCC Telescope; position end figures 34s.55, 43".4; USNO-B1.0 reference stars). Brimacombe's Jan. 10 image is posted at the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6675085425/. Luppi and Buzzi's image is posted at URL http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_P13981.jpg. The image of Miller et al. is posted at the following website URL: http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_P13981_FTN.jpg.