2012CBET.3307....2K

R. Kotak, T.-W. Chen, and M. Fraser, Queen's University, Belfast, report that a spectrogram (range 330-975 nm; resolution about 1000) of PSN J02524601+4655523 = SN 2012gq was obtained on Nov. 21.08 UT with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (+ ISIS). SN 2012gq has a nearly flat continuum, with only a slight increase in flux towards the blue. The only evident feature is broad (around a few thousand km/s) emission at low signal-to-noise, centered on the rest wavelength of H_alpha in PGC 10886. While the largely featureless continuum is similar to what is seen in young type-II supernovae, pre-discovery images constrain 2012gq to be at least 10 days old, while the slope of the spectrum is also inconsistent with a young supernova.