SIMBAD references

J. Vinko, University of Szeged; G. H. Marion, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; and J. C. Wheeler, University of Texas, report that a spectrum of PSN J12355230+2755559 was obtained on Jan. 14.4 UT with the 9.2-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (+ Marcario Low-Resolution Spectrograph) by Sergey Rostopchin. The spectrum is dominated by a blue continuum with very strong, narrow emission features of H I, [O III] 495.9-nm, and [O III] 500.7-nm. The FWHM of the H-alpha feature is 900 km/s. There is a weaker, but significantly detected feature at 590.0 nm that could be due to either He I 587.5-nm or Na I D. There is no sign of features due to permitted transitions of O I or Ca II. The redshift derived from the strong emission lines is 0.003, which matches the redshift of the proposed host galaxy, NGC 4559. The spectrum shows strong resemblance with Luminous Blue Variable outbursts ("supernova mpostors"; Van Dyk et al. 2000, PASP 112, 1532; Smith et al. 2009, Ap.J. 697, L49). The absolute magnitude of the transient (using the average distance of 8.5 Mpc for the host from NED) is about -13, which is within the observed range for such events.