Just days ago, Tim Puckett and his fellow supernova hunters discovered a bright spot at the outer edges of 15th magnitude galaxy IC 1579. It appeared to be the latest find in a long history of spotting supernovas in distant galaxies. In need of urgent verification of their discovery, Tim and his team turned to LightBuckets to confirm their discovery as part of their official submission to the International Astronomical Union. Within hours of imaging IC 1579 with LB-0001, our 24" RC located in Rodeo, NM, the supernova hunters had officially captured a new addition to their catalog. SN 2008gr in IC 1579, discovered by Tim Puckett and Robert Gagliano of the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search, with confirmation provided by Steve Cullen of LightBuckets. We were happy to have even a small contribution to Tim and Robert's discovery - congratulations to the Puckett Observatory Team!

Here's the "before" image and the LightBuckets confirmation image used for Tim and Robert's submission to the IAU. SN 2008gr is clearly visible at the southern end of IC 1579.



International Astronomical Union Confirmation

SUPERNOVA 2008gr IN IC 1579
T. Puckett, Ellijay, GA, U.S.A.; and R. Gagliano, Cottonwood, AZ, U.S.A., report the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 17.2) on unfiltered CCD images (limiting mag 19.3) taken with a 0.60-m reflector at Ellijay on Oct. 29.18 UT in the course of the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search. The new object was confirmed at mag 17.2 on images (limiting mag 19.0) taken by S. Cullen on Oct. 30.11 with a 0.69-m reflector at Rodeo, NM, U.S.A.. SN 2008gr is located at R.A. =0h45m32s.28, Decl. = -26o34'20".2 (equinox 2000.0), which is 0".7 west and 24".8 south of the center of IC 1579. Nothing is visible at this position on images taken by Puckett on 2007 Aug. 22 (limiting mag 19.0).