Supernova 2012au.
Combination of 5, 3 minute images unfiltered.
SBIG STL-1001E CCD. 20" f/6.8 Dall-Kirkham cassegrain telescope at prime focus.
Another bright supernova was discovered on March 2, 2012, in the galaxy NGC 4790. This one peaked at about magnitude 12.8 around March 18. It was not an easy object to study as it was located very close to the bright nucleus of the galaxy. It was also located at a declination of -10, which meant it was rather low in the sky for northern hemisphere observers. In the end, I was only able to image the supernova until June 2012, after which it became too low in the southwestern skies. The resulting lightcurve is shown below. This supernova was a Type Ib.
Below is an animation of all of the imges I was able to obtain. The supernova is the bright object just to the left of the nucleus.
