Catalina/Palomar Optical Transient
M. Ganeshalingam, C. V. Griffith, A. V. Filippenko, and R. J. Foley (University of California, Berkeley)
Inspection of a CCD spectrum (range 330-1000 nm), obtained on July 7 UT with the 3-m Shane reflector (+ Kast spectrograph) at Lick Observatory, shows that the transient reported in ATel 1604 has a very blue, featureless continuum. This could be a very young Type II supernova (though at this time no clear hydrogen Balmer features are present), or some kind of Galactic transient. Further observations are encouraged.
optical,star,supernovae,transient,variables