This 5-minute exposure shows Stuart Parker’s latest supernova discovery in spiral galaxy PGC 17517. Stuart Parker photo
New Zealand amateur astronomer Stuart Parker just sent me an e-mail in which he announced his fourth supernova discovery. Parker routinely surveys numerous galaxies as part of a regular search program.
He discovered the magnitude 17.1 object October 18 in PGC 17517, a magnitude 13.6 galaxy in Pictor. PGC is an acronym that designates this galaxy as one in the Principal Galaxies Catalogue, which contains 73,197 entries.
Peter Marples and Colin Drescher, both of Queensland, Australia, confirmed Parker’s supernova, and he received the discovery credit from the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. That organization designated the supernova 2009jz and announced it to the astronomical community as Central Bureau Electronic Telegram (CBET) 1984.