Circular No. 5403
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Postal Address: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Telephone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)
TWX 710-320-6842 ASTROGRAM CAM     EASYLINK 62794505
MARSDEN or GREEN@CFA.BITNET    MARSDEN or GREEN@CFAPS2.SPAN
 
 
PERIODIC COMET TSUCHINSHAN 2 (1991e1)
     J. Scotti, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, reports the recovery
of this comet on images obtained with the 0.91-m Spacewatch tele-
scope by D. Rabinowitz and himself:
 
     1991 UT             R.A. (1950) Decl.        m2
     Dec.  3.21335    3 08 52.09   +26 31 10.2   21.2
           3.23212    3 08 51.10   +26 31 02.7   20.6
           3.25032    3 08 49.97   +26 30 54.8   21.0
          13.29695    3 01 11.38   +25 23 00.8   21.7
          13.31132    3 01 10.86   +25 22 54.8   21.0
          13.32596    3 01 10.14   +25 22 48.4   21.5
 
The Dec. 3.25 image is apparently influenced by that of a faint
star.  The comet appears stellar, to the limits of seeing, and the
position is in close agreement with the prediction on MPC 14593
(ephemeris on MPC 18469).  The m2 values are V magnitudes.
 
 
SUPERNOVA 1991bg IN NGC 4374
     R. Kirshner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, re-
ports that a spectrogram (range 480-710 nm) obtained by J. Peters
and B. Leibundgut, with the 1.5-m reflector at the F. L. Whipple Ob-
servatory on Dec. 12.5 UT, shows the strong Si II absorption at 615
nm that characterizes type-Ia supernovae in early phases.
     A. V. Filippenko, University of California at Berkeley, reports
that A. Dey (also of Berkeley), W. J. M. van Breugel (Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory), and S. Deustua (also of LLNL) ob-
tained a CCD spectrogram (range 330-650 nm, resolution 1-2 nm) of SN
1991bg on Dec. 13 UT with the Shane 3-m reflector at Lick Observato-
ry.  Preliminary inspection of the uncalibrated spectrum shows that
the object is of type Ia, probably about 1-2 weeks past maximum
brightness.  However, there may be some spectroscopic peculiarities,
and the object appears considerably fainter than other type-Ia sup-
ernovae in the Virgo cluster.
 
 
NOVA HERCULIS 1991
Corrigendum. On IAUC 5343, last line, for  24.34, 15.1 (Modic);
read  June 24.34, 15.1 (Modic);
 
 
1991 December 13                                  Daniel W. E. Green