Taurus Hill Observatory continued the supernova search program with great success. Research team members Veli-Pekka Hentunen and Markku Nissinen photograhed galaxy NGC 6643 (about 78 bly from the Earth) 31.3/1.4.2008 at Taurus Hill Observatory. First look to the picture revealed the “new star” in the galaxy. The picture was taken with the clear filter and 90 sec. exposure time. Veli-Pekka Hentunen immediately said that “Look at this. Sure case (supernova)” to Markku Nissinen. The brigthness of the this new star was so high and the other features indicated that it was indeed a new supernova.

Veli-Pekka and Markku took confirmation pictures with longer exposure times and with the photometric R -filter and this revealed the supernova even better. The discover was reported to the Arto Oksanen (Hankasalmi observatory) and Arto took some photos that finally ensured the discovery.

After this the discovery reported to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. After few days the discovery was ensured by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and it got the title SN2008bo.

The SN2008bo is a type Ib and this is calculated the spectrum analysis that was made by the H. Navasardyan etc. in Padova, Cappellaro Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).

This discovery is second supernova discovery made by the Taurus Hill Observatory. The first one was SN2007ae that was discovered 19.2.2007.

More about the SN2008bo:

– Rochesterastronomy
– Tähdet & Avaruus -magazine (in finnish)