2008CBET.1306....1L

W. Li and A. V. Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley; and S. D. Van Dyk, Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, on behalf of a larger team, report on their analysis of the available HST/WFPC2 images of the field of SN 2008ax in NGC 4490, and derive the following additional photometric magnitudes for the possible progenitor star of 2008ax (cf. CBETs 1290, 1298): [F450W] = 23.55 ± 0.09, [F606W] = 23.64 ± 0.13, [F814W] = 22.58 ± 0.08. These magnitudes and colors are not consistent with a single star having significant reddening [E(B-V) = 0.5 mag, as reported on CBET 1298], suggesting that the site of 2008ax is contaminated by several sources. A plausible scenario is that there are two stars near the supernova site: one is the reddened progenitor of SN 2008ax, while the other is a blue supergiant suffering little extinction (thus unlikely to be related to SN 2008ax). Further analysis is ongoing.