Mon, 05/20/2013 - 15:27
There is a bright transient (12 magnitude on May 10th) in NCG 428 ( R.A. = 01h12m54s.92, Decl. = +00°58'45".7) that is about 11" west and 8" north of the galaxy center. This might be bright enough for several of you to get a spectra with your rigs and it should be accessible from both the northern and southern hemispheres. The one tough thing about this is that it is in the early morning sky and near conjunction with the Sun so longer exposures might be a problem.
If you get a spectrum that is suitable for identification purposes, I'd be happy to help you write the ATEL and/or CBAT to get you credit for the identification.
Excellent targer but very low in the morning sky.
At such a magnitude, we need 1 hour exposition time to get a correct result with a small scope at R = 800/1000
François Teyssier
To follow this up. ATEL # 5081 reports a spectrum that identifies this as a Type Ia SN.
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=5081