No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
The dedication of at least 24 local and visiting observers has enabled the SAAO to accumulate a large body of spectroscopic and photometric observations of SN1987a. Broad band photometry has been obtained on every possible photometric night while spectra at 7A(FWHM), including the first spectrum in the world, were obtained every night for the first 14 nights and thereafter on a weekly basis. These data, which have been more fully presented elsewhere (Menzies et al. 1987, Catchpole et al. 1987) are briefly discussed here for the time interval 24 February until 31 August 1987. Throughout this paper we adopt a distance modulus of 18.5 and a reddening of Av=0.6 for SN1987a.