sn 1885a reached magnitude 5.85 on 21 august 1885, and faded to magnitude 14 half a year later. it was reddish in color and declined rapidly in brightness, which is atypical for type ia supernovae. some astronomers observed the spectrum of the star visually (no photographic spectral observations were made in that time). these observations were made at the limit of visibility, but they were considered to be in good agreement with each other and with modern data on typical supernovae of type ia; so sn 1885a had been assigned to this type. recent studies led by dovi poznanski and by hagai perets suggest that sn 1885a belongs in a new subclass of type i supernovae along with sn 2002bj and sn 1939b.