2012CBET.2982....1D

A. J. Drake, S. G. Djorgovski, M. J. Graham, A. Mahabal, and R. Williams, California Institute of Technology; J. L. Prieto, Princeton University; M. Catelan, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; E. C. Beshore and S. M. Larson, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona; and E. Christensen, Gemini Observatory, report the discovery of an apparent supernova in unfiltered Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) images:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------— SN 2012 UT R.A. (2000.0) Decl. Mag. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------— 2012F Jan. 4.11 0 33 19.54 + 3 48 17.4 17.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------—

The variable was designated PSN J00331954+0348174 when it was posted at the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012F based on the spectroscopic confirmation reported below. Additional CCD magnitudes for 2012F (unfiltered unless noted otherwise): 2011 Dec. 16.10 UT, [19.5 (CSS); 25.18, 18.9 (CSS); 2012 Jan. 5.066, R = 17.3 (Joseph Brimacombe, Cairns, Australia; remotely using a 51-cm RCOS telescope + STL11K camera + red filter at the New Mexico Skies Observatory near Mayhill, NM, U.S.A.; magnitude includes supernova plus host-galaxy background light; position end figures 19s.52, 17".3); 7.813, 17.5 (Federica Luppi and Luca Buzzi, Varese, Italy; 0.38-m f/6.8 reflector; position end figures 19s.55, 17".6; reference stars from CMC-14 catalogue); 14.12, 18.2 (CSS). Brimacombe's image is posted at URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6641294059/. Luppi and Buzzi's image is posted at http://www.astrogeo.va.it/pub/TOCP/PSN_J00331954+0348174.jpg.