I'm delighted to announced the discovery of an apparent supernova at Raheny Observatory.  From what I can gather this is the first supernova which has been discovered from Ireland.  The discovery was made on Spetember 17th using my 0.36-m Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope at Raheny (MPC #J41).  I just counted how many galaxies were searched to make this discovery and the answer is 2,611 galaxies surveyed.

Supernova Discovery Image - The new object is marked with red lines.

The discovery night was a bit strange.  It was a Friday and a good clear night.  I was following up some Near Earth Asteroid candidates and things weren't going too well. Around midnight I was tired and just felt like locking up the observator and going to watch some TV.  I decided to coninue on the basis that discoveries are rarely made watchin TV.  So I re-ran a list of targets which I had previously imaged on August 20th.  I had barely began examining when on the second image of the night I spotted a star that shouldnt be there.  The first thing I did was check that this was not just an anomaly on the camera by making sure the object appeared on both images I had taken that night.  When I was sure this was a real object there are lots more checks to be done before even raising so much as a whimper.  Maybe it's an asteroid?  Maybe its a known Supernova.  After an exhastive nights checking I was convinced that this was in fact a new supernova and prepared a report to the IAU.  The following night I received an e-mail from Ron Arbour (South Wonston, UK) that he was able to confirm the discovery on an image he had just taken.  This was massive news, now this is not just my opinion, this was independent confirmation.

I thought that IAU confirmation would shortly follow however I was informed that it would be likely that spectroscopic confirmation would be needed first.  Over the next two weeks the suspected supernova was monitored almost nightly by the dedicated members of the UK Nova/Supernova patrol.   I also managed to secure some images using the 0.61-m telescope at Sierra Stars Observatory, Califormia.  This also showed the suspect clearly.

At this point I would like to particularly thank Mr. Tom Boles, Mr. Ron Arbour, Mr. Martin Mobberley and not least Mr. Guy Hurst for all of their help and encouragement and the numerous confirmation images they took over this period.  I also want to thank Mr Pat Rochford FL USA and Dave McDonald at Celbridge Observatory for all their help.  I must also mention a word of thanks to Carl O'Beirnes and my wife Carol who had to put up with me bei g insufferable over this period!.

Shortly afterwards I was contacted by Prof. Stephen Smartt who heads up the Astrophysical Research Group at Queen's University Belfast.  Prof. Smartt offered the services of his team to obtain the necessary spectroscopic confirmation.  On Sunday night, 3rd October, Prof. Smartt and his team managed the required analysis and quickly confirmed that the object was indeed a Supernova.  Prof. Smartt's work indicates that this is in fact a type 1b/c supernova however the spectrum shows enough peculiarites to warrant further studies.

At the time of writing I am still waiting on this to be designated by the International Astronomical Union, I will update further when this happens.