2012CBET.3028....1B

Greg Bock, Windaroo, Queensland, Australia, reports the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 14.8) by Stuart Parker (Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand) on unfiltered CCD images taken on Feb. 21.39 and 21.48 UT using a 35-cm f/6.3 Celestron C14 reflector (+ ST10 camera), with a confirming image also taken by Roger Groom at Perth, Western Australia, on Feb. 21.51 using a Meade 30.5-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector (+ SBIG ST8XME camera). The new object is located at R.A. = 23:25:59.63, Decl. = -81:54:33.3 (equinox 2000.0), which is 58" west and 8" north of the nucleus of the galaxy NGC 7637 (astrometry and photometry by Bock, using the USNO-B and UCAC3 catalogues). Nothing is visible at this position on Digitized Sky Survey red and infrared images (limiting red mag > 19); also, nothing is visible on an unfiltered 30-s image of NGC 7637 taken by Stuart on Jan. 16 (limiting red magnitude > 18.6). The variable was designated PSN J23255963-8154333 when it was posted at the Central Bureau's TOCP webpage and is here designated SN 2012ah based on the spectroscopic confirmation reported below.