SIMBAD references

An independent discovery of 2008fh has been reported by F. Yuan, University of Michigan; R. Quimby, California Institute of Technology; D. Chamarro, A. Uecker, M. D. Sisson, and C. Akerlof, University of Michigan; and J. C. Wheeler, University of Texas, on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration, from unfiltered CCD images taken on July 30.36 (showing 2008fh at mag about 18.3), Aug. 1.34 (mag about 18.0), and 9.33 UT (mag about 18.8) with the 0.45-m ROTSE-IIIb telescope at McDonald Observatory, providing position end figures 18s.59, 45".1. Nothing was detected to mag about 18.7 on an image takein on July 24.38. There is no apparent host seen in the Digitized Sky Survey image, but the location is in the middle of a group of galaxies in the Perseus cluster. A ROTSE finding chart of 2008fh can be found at URL http://www.rotse.net/rsvp/j032018.6+412145/j032018.6+412145.jpg. Spectra (range 420-890 nm) of 2008fh – obtained under poor conditions on Aug. 21.37 by M. Shetrone and A. Westfall, and under improved conditions on Aug. 26.37 by J. Caldwell and V. Riley, with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (+ Marcario Low-Resolution Spectrograph) – show broad (FWHM about 10000 km/s) emission features similar to those in spectra of type-Ia supernovae in the nebular phase. The best-fit match from SNID (Blondin and Tonry 2007, Ap.J. 666, 1024), is to spectra of SN 1991bg arround 30 days past maximum light; however, the fit is imperfect and results in a formal redshift estimate of z = 0.008 ± 0.008. By eye, the data longward of 630 nm are similar to those of 1991bg around 50 days past maximum, but with a much stronger emission peak at about 870 nm (observed). From this fit, a redshift of approximately z = 0.01 is estimated. If the object is in the Perseus galaxy cluster (Abell 426), then – correcting for Galactic extinction – the peak absolute magnitude would correspond to about -16.7, which would be consistent with a subluminous, 1991bg-like supernova at this distance (z = 0.0179, Struble and Rood 1999, Ap.J. Suppl. 125, 35).