Circular No. 6628
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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SUPERNOVA 1997bt IN ANONYMOUS GALAXY
     D. Hardin reports her discovery, as part of the EROS team's
systematic CCD search with the European Southern Observatory's
Marly 1-m telescope, of a supernova (V about 19.5) on Mar. 31,
located 0".3 east and 0".3 south of the center of a galaxy at R.A.
= 11h06m15s.1, Decl. = -11o36'25" (equinox 2000.0).  No object was
present at the position of the supernova on a CCD frame taken on
Feb. 13.  The host galaxy, number 2915 in the LCRS Survey, has R_c
= 16.17 and redshift 0.06.  A spectrum obtained by S. Benetti on
Apr. 15 at the Danish 1.54-m reflector (+ DFOSC) at La Silla shows
features consistent with those of a type-II supernova a few weeks
after maximum.


GRB 970402
     H. Pedersen, Copenhagen University Observatory; A. Castro-
Tirado and J. Gorosabel, Laboratorio de Astrofisica Espacial y
Fisica Fundamental, INTA, Madrid; L. Metcalfe, European Space
Agency, VILSPA, Madrid; L. Nicastro and E. Palazzi, ITESRE, CNR,
Bologna; F. Frontera, Universita di Ferrara; L. Piro, M. Feroci,
and E. Costa, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale, Rome; J. Heise,
Space Research Organization of the Netherlands, Utrecht; M. V.
Alonso, Observatorio de Cordoba; M. Boer, Centre d'Etude Spatiale
des Rayonnements, Toulouse; and G. Mathys, M. Scodeggio, J. Brewer,
S. Benetti, and F. Comeron, European Southern Observatory (ESO),
write:  "We have obtained deep images using the ESO New Technology
Telescope with the EMMI (9' x 9' field, on Apr. 4, 5, and 6) and
SUSI (2'.2 x 2'.2 field, on Apr. 7 and 11) instruments.  The EMMI
data are centered on the 3'-error GRB position (IAUC 6610), while
the SUSI data are centered the 50"-error x-ray position (IAUC 6617).
No variable object was found within the area covered by SUSI; we
estimate that the limits are V = 22.5 and I = 21.7 for the
detection of an emerging or disappearing object.  In the area
covered by EMMI only (thus well removed from the x-ray source), we
found one variable, starlike object, at R.A. = 14h49m43s.6, Decl. =
-69o18'55" (equinox 2000.0); its magnitudes were Apr. 4.2, I =
17.25, V = 18.33, B = 19.32, R = 17.86; Apr. 5.3, I = 17.20, B =
19.30; Apr. 6.4, I = 17.76.  We note that BL Cir (R.A. =
14h49m56s.7, Decl. = -69o20'50", equinox 2000.0) is close to the x-
ray position.  On Apr. 4, we found V = 19.6, B = 21.6 for this
semi-regular variable; a low-dispersion spectrum obtained on Apr. 5
using the 1.54-m Danish telescope (+ DFOSC) indicates that it is a
deeply reddened star of spectral type late-G to early-K."

                      (C) Copyright 1997 CBAT
1997 April 16                  (6628)            Daniel W. E. Green