CBAT
Discovery of many kinds of transient astronomical phenomena (e.g., comets, novae, supernovae, etc.) should be reported to the CBAT. The Bureau is responsible for assigning designations to comets, supernovae, and Galactic novae. Sometimes reports are received of such objects that contain observations on only a single night (or sometimes more than one night), needing confirmation before formal announcement and designation on IAUCs (and sometimes CBETs). Below are listed temporarily such unconfirmed observations, so that interested observers may attempt confirming observations. Please report any observations (negative or positive) promptly to the CBAT at e-mail address cbat@cfa.harvard.edu.
Meteor(ite)/fireball reports should not be reported to the Bureau, but to
the Fireball Data Center of the International Meteor Organization
(e-mail: idac@imo.net).
Discoveries of new minor planets should be reported to the Minor Planet Center.
A listing of the information that one should include in any discovery report concerning comets, supernovae, novae, outbursts of variable stars, or features on planetary surfaces is available.
If you wish to report a discovery you may report it in this
manner. Please ensure that you
have read the documentation on what information you should include in
your report --- incomplete reports may be ignored.
You should e-mail a report directly to
cbat@cfa.harvard.edu.
Please read this to see how to represent non-standard characters.
The unconfirmed observations are listed below in plain ASCII text in essentially the 80-column format used for MPC astrometry, for columns 16-71 -- the exception being that one should put the galaxy designation in the first 14 columns for supernovae candidates (psn for "possible supernova"; sn for "supernova already confirmed spectroscopically"), the 3-letter constellation abbreviation for novae and other non-solar-system candidates, and "poss.comet" for comet candidates; and columns 73-80 are used for supernova-suspect offsets in arcsec from the host galaxy's center as follows:
70 80 123456789 xxxEyyyN
where 'xxx' is the rounded-even digits (flush right) for arcsec (NOT seconds of time) of right ascension, the 'E' would be used if the supernova is east of the galaxy center (otherwise 'W' for west), 'yyy' is the rounded-even digits (flush right) for arcsec of declination, the 'N' would be used if the supernova is north of the galaxy center (otherwise 'S' for south). In column 71 after the magnitude, use `U' for unfiltered CCD, `T' for technical-pan film, `V' for V magnitude, `R' for R or red magnitude, lower-case `v' for visual magnitude, etc. NOTE: In Oct. 2004, as per interest by observers, we added two columns to aid observers in judging the quality of the candidates below: (1) in column 83 is given a number from 0 to 9, specifying the number of previously designated (and not later retracted) supernovae discovered by the same observer (as listed in the CBAT webpage file of supernovae); the number 9 signifies 9 or more discoveries. (2) in column 85 is the number of days between known frames taken by the discoverer (and others, if relevant), with a nine (9) indicating nine or more days, a zero (0) signifying 0.5 day or less, and a dash (-) indicating only a single frame (a blank indicates that this datum is unknown). NOTE that we are discontinuing our policy of posting anything here based on single images: observers *must* report that two images confirm the reality of the object (to rule out imaging flaws), and it is preferred that images be taken at least 20-30 minutes apart (for telescopic imagery; 1-2 hours for smaller-scale camera-lens imagery) to rule out such things as minor planets, in order for objects to be posted here.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789
pn/Ser 2004 06 17.028 17 22 00.3 -14 14 26 13 T
psn/UGC1792 2004 08 11.48 02 19 53.47 +29 02 39.9 18.8 U 10E 30N 9 -
var/UGC11651 2004 09 01.31 20 57 10.21 +25 57 51.6 18.8 U 70W 14S 9 5
psn/UGC4904 2004 10 15.816 09 17 20.81 +41 54 32.3 19.0 U 10W 8S 9 2
psn 2004 11 09.82720 10 51 29.35 +13 21 45.5 17.8 R 8W 8S 9 9
psn/NGC1023 2005 01 10.963 02 40 20.59 +39 03 40.4 12.3 U 270W 0 0
psn 2005 02 01.24 07 39 46.41 -14 25 39 14.1 U 0 4
var/Ret 2005 03 24.507 04 11 09.4 -59 11 17 12.2 U 3 0
psn/NGC3780 2005 03 29.040 11 39 26.05 +56 16 36.7 16.7 U 31E 22N 0 0
psn 2005 04 06.947 15 15 43.31 -00 25 23.2 16.6 U 2N 0E 2 0
psn/IC4938 2005 06 06.077 20 06 11.4 -60 12 29 18.0 U 10N 9 1
psn/FGC2244 2005 08 20.774 19 16 07.64 +71 25 14.7 17.8 U 0W 0N 1 7
psn 2005 09 13.955 23 54 55.73 +01 36 05.5 16.3 U 0W 0N 1 7
psn/NGC5457 2005 10 22.078 14 04 13.1 +54 22 03 15.7 V 420NW? 0 -?
psn/MCG-03-1-8 2005 11 05.20 23 58 32.50 -18 42 33.0 17.2 U 9E 18N 9 -
psn/UGC4798 2005 12 25.67 09 08 42.33 +44 48 51.4 17.4 U 6W 13N 7 1
psn/NGC4382 2006 01 06.57 12 25 23.84 +18 10 55.8 19.3 U 4W 32S 9 3
psn 2006 03 06.80 07 09 17.80 +49 52 12.8 16.9 U 4E 4S 3 0
psn/NGC4310 2006 03 11.95 12 22 26.56 +29 12 17.2 15.9 U 3W 14S 9 8
var/And 2006 08 26.978 22 58 44.37 +46 23 37.6 16.3 U 9 6
psn/PGC67431 2006 10 15.636 21 49 51.41 -26 00 31.4 18.3 U 1E 2N 9 1
psn 2006 10 28.505 10 47 48.40 +30 38 21.4 17.5 V 9 9
psn 2006 10 24.99 01 58 15.76 +36 20 58.3 15.1 U 4N 2 1
var/Cas 2007 01 29.75 03 17 36.48 +74 59 31.2 15.8 U 1 7
psn/UGC5632 2007 03 27.85 10 24 33.8 +20 08 32 16.5 U 8E 15N 0 0
psn/N3340 2007 02 26.786 10 42 18.21 -00 22 38.4 16.3 U 4E 2S 9 9
psn/M77 2007 09 16.15071 02 42 34.17 -00 03 23.0 19.0 U 0 0
psn/UGC5188 2007 09 13.04 09 44 09.71 +65 58 39.9 15.0 U 1W 0S 9 9
var/Leo 2007 10 16.239 10 29 47.36 +10 57 12.1 14.5 U 0 0
var/Pic 2008 02 24.09 05 59 24.08 -51 25 22.0 13.3 R 9 1
psn 2008 02 28.33 10 53 00.81 -07 56 55.9 19.2 U 0 6
NOTE: These data should not be posted on any other webpage at any other website, and they should not be sent to any regular mass e-mail list. If abuses are found, we may have to discontinue this website feature. This webpage is being posted as an experiment for those interested in helping to confirm discovery reports that are not quite ready for announcement.
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