This is a bright supernova in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5921. It was discovered by the Beijing Astronomical Observatory supernova search program on 27.8 Feb. We started observing it on 3 March. It is a Type II plateau caught very early.
 
 

Optical Finding chart for SN2001X . This is a 60s V image taken with the CTIO 0.9m telescope and facility CCD camera on 3 March 2001 by Beatrice Bucciarelli of the Astronomical Observatory of Torino. The supernova and a bright star are marked. The "+" is the location for the IR images to be taken with the YALO telescope. The chart is roughly 6.8 arcmin on a side.

Infrared Finding Chart. This is a raw J frame from the YALO telescope taken on 6 March 2001. It is a single 45s exposure. The starting exposures for the sequence should have the SN near  or slightly below the center line at about pixel (300,512). We will be stepping the telescope W. It is very important to always have star 2 on the detector during the dithers and offsets.

Color image from the CTIO 0.9m telescope and facility CCD. The BVI images were taken 3 March 2001. Note that the SN is extremely blue. Here is another color image that goes a bit deeper. It was made from YALO telescope BVI data taken between 4 and 19 March 2001.

Infrared image. This is a processed J image from the YALO 1m telescope, 6 March 2001. I have averaged 7 images. It is important to have the SN and Star 2 on the detector at all times.

Light curve in BVRI. The supernova is clearly a Type II plateau.

A finding chart for the local standards. The data table for the standards is given here. These are based on 2 nights of YALO data.